Holidays, Ranger Style
by White-Knight-1988
Summary: A look into the holidays for the most beloved, and my favorite, Ranger couple of all time, Tommy & Kimberly. The first chapter is extremely mature so don't read it if you're not into that stuff but everything after that is going to be teen. R&R please!
1. Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

On a night where ghouls and goblins, witches and warlocks, vampires and werewolves so often reigned supreme, something different was brewing in the air tonight. Twenty-seven All Hallows Eves had come and gone for those who had laid down everything to defend the planet, to be Earth's first team of Power Rangers. Tonight...was their night.

Nightfall was quickly approaching and that meant that it was only a matter of time before the first of the night's Trick-or-Treaters walked up Valencia Drive to ring the doorbell or knock on the door of the man who, as a teenager, had worn the best costume of them all. Alas, he would not be there to answer the door when they came dressed up and calling for sweets. Instead, a black plastic cauldron full of candy rested on his front porch to make up for his absence, a note attached to it with strict instructions for the kids to only take one piece.

They were instructions he knew would not be followed except for the kids who came with their parents. He vividly remembered the first time he went Trick-or-Treating without parental supervision and how, when someone did what he was doing, the massive amount of candy he would take. It was in Arizona, Flagstaff to be precise and, at nine years old, he had gone with three of his friends from the third grade dressed as the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles. He had fought tooth and nail to be Raphael and now, as an adult, the irony of wearing the red mask was far from lost on him.

Sitting on the couch in his living room, his costume in a bag next to where he was sitting, he held a white card that he had received a month earlier. It had come from his best friend and ex-girlfriend, an invitation to their first annual Halloween party. Reading the card again, he couldn't help but wonder just how many of his old friends would be attending. And not just how many, but who?

The card, generic in its' own right, was probably the same one that went out to everyone else that they had invited to their party.

_You are hereby invited to the first annual Halloween Bash of Jason Lee Scott and Katherine Scott-Hillard. The party will take place on Halloween night, beginning promptly at nine o'clock p.m. Food and drinks will be provided. Costumes are a must and no kids are allowed. This is an invitation only party so please, don't bring guests without first consulting Jason or Katherine. Please RSVP by no later than Wednesday, October the 24th. Hope to see you all there. It's going to be a ghastly time._

Shrugging his shoulders, he let out a chuckle and tossed the card onto the coffee table. For two weeks after getting the invitation he had danced around the idea of going. He was twenty-eight years old, a doctor of paleontology and a high school science teacher. Wasn't he a little too old, weren't they all a little too old, for Halloween parties?

After constant pressure from one Jason Scott and his wife, Katherine Hillard-Scott, to attend the party, he finally caved in the day before RSVP's were due. Now, all he had had to do was find a costume on extremely short notice. He had searched high and low in every costume store in and around town but had no luck finding anything he liked. There had been a pimp costume, complete with purple smoking jacket, matching fedora and faux diamond-tipped cane that had caught his eye but they were out of his size.

Having spent nearly a week of searching, his friend Hayley suggested a trip into his basement where she helped him find exactly what he was looking for. The basement with its' old and outdated contents had proved to be the place he should have looked to begin with. If who he thought was going to be at the party actually was there, the costume he had in mind was going to be perfect.

Just in case things didn't work out the way he hoped they were going to, he was dragging Hayley along with him. Yeah, yeah, invitation only but Jason could go fuck himself for all he cared. Not in the literal sense of course, he just knew his best friend wouldn't care if he brought along someone who had been such an instrumental part in his adult life.

Jason had heard the stories about Hayley from him firsthand. How she had been his confidant through college when things were tough, how she had come to his rescue when every date he went on ended up blowing up in his face, how she had helped him build and harness the technology they needed for certain extra-curricular activities. In his book, and Jason's, she was as good and as welcome as any one who hadn't donned the spandex could be in their circle of friends.

Time and time again he had hoped this night would come. If he was honest with himself though, he dreaded it just as much as he looked forward to it. Not Halloween or being with his friends but being around _her_ again. Just thinking about her gave him the same butterflies in his stomach that he felt on that oddly fateful day.

He had been the new kid in Angel Grove having just moved from Arizona. An expert in the martial arts, he had entered a karate tournament the weekend before his first day at Angel Grove High and had nearly won the whole thing. He would have too if not for the one person he had ever met who could match him punch for punch and kick for kick.

It was on that day, after tying for first place in the karate tournament, when he first laid eyes on the young woman who would forever hold the key to his heart. Shy and maybe even a little nervous about talking to her at school that Monday, he had pushed his fears aside and so valiantly come to her rescue when two of Angel Grove High's most notorious bullies cornered her against her locker. After a few punches and kicks that intentionally never connected, they had gone scampering out of the hallway leaving the two of them alone for the first time.

Oh the awkwardness of that first meeting. The way he had come to her rescue only to give her that shy smile practically made the petite brunette blush. He was, as she had so eloquently put it, wow.

That was how it started and it had continued that way for quite some time after that. Just like he had danced around the party, they had danced around each other until neither of them could deal with it anymore. Their emotions took over and they finally admitted to each other how they felt. The mutual friends they shared had known it would only be a matter of time before they gave in and confessed their feelings.

Kissing her that day by the lake had, for just a brief moment, lifted the weight of the world that was, literally, resting on his shoulders off. He had succumbed, had kissed her just once but it was a kiss neither of them would ever forget. The way their lips met in that soft and loving way, he knew at that moment that he would never kiss another woman that way.

Long after she had ripped his heart out with a Dear John letter, long after he had moved on and started dating Katherine, he still hadn't gotten over her. No matter how hard he tried to fight it, no matter how much he wanted Katherine to be her, he knew there would never be another woman who could do the things to him that she had done and still did.

He had dated, had slept with quite a few women in college and after that but they had never gotten what she had always had. They had him physically but, emotionally and spiritually, he would always belong to the only woman he could ever truly love. Like dressing up as a Ninja Turtle, he remembered in great detail the way Katherine had broken up with him and, even before she had given him a reason, he knew why.

Tears filled the Australian imports eyes when she told him that their relationship wasn't going to work out. He was holding onto the past, scratching and clinging at it for dear life. No relationship could withstand that no matter how willing both partners wanted it to. Katherine, the first woman he had ever slept with, ended it with a simple kiss on the cheek knowing she could never replace the love of _her_, the love he would forever hope for.

But, whether she realized it or not, she had helped him in more ways than he could ever verbally express to her. At a time when his heart had been obliterated to pieces she had cleaned up the mess, picked up the pieces and tried her hardest to put them back together. In a way, she had succeeded. She had shown him that, physically, there were other fish in the sea. It was the emotional part that had, and always would, hold him back.

For the man who had saved the world so many times fear was an emotion that he rarely, if ever, exhibited publicly. At least until another woman with an attraction towards him decided to come calling. He just didn't have it in him to open up and let them into his world. The defensive walls had gone up long before they would come and they would stay up long after they had left.

Only four people in his life had ever gotten inside those walls: Katherine, Hayley, his mom and _her_. Even saying her name was difficult for him. Why was he still holding onto her, to her memory? High school relationships came and went all the time so why was letting her go so damn difficult?

Maybe it was because, in his heart of hearts, he knew that the relationship and love that they had shared was simply not typical for two high school kids. Duty had bonded them in ways they couldn't even try to explain. She had been there through both his brightest and his darkest days, something that would forever tie him to her even if he didn't want it to be that way.

He had fought so hard to free her from his life and from his memory. Joining a fraternity in college where the sorority girls came flocking had been his way of trying to do that but it never worked. He'd take one out, they'd hang around each other for a few weeks and they'd fuck before he moved on. That was all it was to him. Fucking. It was never sex or making love, just fucking.

Even that had eventually lost its' luster and appeal to him. Probably because, in his senior year of college at Surfside University, he had picked the wrong woman to play his little game with. Most of the girls in college went along with it just because of who he was. That quiet and mysterious demeanor, the chiseled muscles and those piercing brown eyes had no trouble wooing the ladies but this one had been different.

Jennifer Kendall. The mere thought of waking up in the fraternity house the day after sending her packing still sent shivers down his spine. He had saved some money from racing with his uncle and used it do buy a near new Ford Mustang that, in some way or another, represented his past. The custom green paint job with red racing striped, the all white leather interior, it had all been ruined.

The crazy bitch had attacked his car with everything she could find. Paint thinner on the outside, rocks through every window and four slashed tires told him it was time to change his ways. But he was a college student and a male one at that. He had the same lusts and desires of any college aged male and, without _her_ by his side, he was forced to look elsewhere to satisfy those needs.

However, the destruction of his car that he had affectionately named _K_, had opened his eyes. That didn't mean he stopped sleeping with women though. If he was attracted to one and the feeling was mutual, he just told them upfront that he wasn't looking for a relationship. Sleeping with them he could deal with but a serious commitment was, and had always been, reserved for one person.

For years he had wondered if she felt the same, if she still cared about him or even still thought about him at all. He was sure she had gotten over him until the day her father had passed away. When she had shown up at his apartment in Surfside, just a year after he had graduated from college, he knew that there was still something there, some kind of connection that had never really faded away.

He remembered standing by her side as her father's casket was lowered into the earth, his arm around her shoulder keeping her tight against his side. He remembered every tear she had cried, every whimper that had escaped her lips and he remembered the promise he had made to her. The letter had long since been put to rest, no hard feelings whatsoever existed between the pair and when they had gone back to her hotel after the funeral, he had promised her that he would always be there for her, even if as only a friend.

A friend had been exactly what she needed at the time. She needed that comforting arm around her, the soothing voice telling her that everything would be okay and she was thankful for it. So thankful in fact that she had actually tried to put the moves on him, something he regretted putting stop to every day of his life.

He wanted nothing more than to ravage her, to strip off every article of clothing she had on and kiss every inch of her body as they made love. And that's what it would have been. He would have made love with someone for the first time in his life if the infamous Oliver guilt complex hadn't gotten in the way. Taking advantage of the only woman he had ever loved while she grieved for her father was the last thing that he wanted to do.

With tears in his eyes, he had put the kibosh on it before if had even really gotten started. They had exchanged a few kisses when he told her he couldn't do it. Not right then. She had thrown him out of her hotel room, yelling at him the whole way and, as she watched the taillights of his Jeep pull away from her hotel, she thanked him.

The next day had seen a three hour long phone call from her to him full of apologies for the way she had behaved the previous night. At that point, they had agreed to be just friends. Nothing more and nothing less. A plane ride to Miami came two days later and, as fast as she had come back into his life, she was gone once more.

They played the email game, exchanging weekly messages to keep each other updated with the occasional phone call for a birthday or on Christmas but that was the extent of their contact. Through the grapevine of his friends, however, he had heard that she had left Miami to return to California the year after he had started teaching at Reefside. She bought her childhood home in Angel Grove and had taken a job teaching P.E. and English classes at Angel Grove High.

Yet, for as close as they were to each other, neither had ever made so much as an attempt to see the other one. Even though a few years had gone by since her father's passing, the events in her hotel room still lingered for both of them. Neither was sure what the other wanted. Was friendship the only thing in the cards for them or was there the potential for something more?

Simply put, he had grown tired of asking himself that same damn question over and over, night after night, week after week, month after month and year after year. If she was there tonight, he was going to lay it all out on the line. He wanted her. He wanted her with every fiber of his being and not just physically, either. He wanted her heart, her soul and her mind just as much as he wanted her body. It was a do or die moment for him and he knew that.

The headlights and the sound of honking from the silver Ford Escort parked in his driveway snapped him from his thoughts and reminiscing. Quickly checking his bag and his person to make sure he had everything he needed, he ran upstairs into his room and grabbed a few condoms, sticking them into his wallet just in case. Just in case. Oh how he hoped it would be the case.

When he got outside, Hayley was leaning against her car waiting for him in full costume. The sight of his old friend dressed up like a nurse and a sexy nurse at that made him blush ever so slightly. She had always been rather conservative, attractive and pretty in her own way without drawing attention to herself. He liked that in her, it was a quality that he admired in a certain other female.

After a quick hello and a hug, she ran through a mental checklist of all the things he needed. Wallet, keys, cell phone, costume and condoms. The look on his face when she said condoms was, for lack of a better term, priceless. Conversations with his oldest and closest friends, conversations he didn't know about of course, had told her all she needed to know about the night ahead of them.

But she hadn't really needed those conversations to be honest. They had been more of a confirmation for what she had long suspected. The love he felt for _her_ was impossible to ignore. It could walk up, spit at you and smack you in the face or sit there in the shadows, biding its' time for the right moment to arrive. Either way, Hayley knew who was going to be at Jason and Katherine's party. Now, it was only a matter of time before he did too.

For almost two hours they drove in silence. It was the most awkward two hours of his life. At random times he'd find himself fidgeting nervously, a comforting hand from Hayley always there to calm him down. When they finally arrived at the Scott-Hillard household he looked around for a few moments at the cars and decorations on the house.

Jason and Katherine didn't live in a normal neighborhood like most people. Like him, they chose to remain on the outskirts of town, far enough away to have some semblance of privacy. Their house was on the edge of Angel Grove, Jason's money from his ten karate schools across California having been well spent on it.

A half dozen or so solid pewter cauldrons filled with dry ice sat on the front porch, releasing a smoke-like substance that floated eerily into the air. From the large oak tree on their front lawn, a dummy painted blue and dressed in all gold, hung with a noose around its' neck. Only a select few people would get the joke and he was one of them

Shaking his head, he looked at the cars that lined the gravel driveway and the street. He immediately recognized the black and yellow Mitsubishi Montero that belonged to Adam and Tanya Park, the red Chevy Silverado of Rocky DeSantos and the matching yellow Ford Mustangs of Trini Kwan and Aisha Campbell, something that had happened completely by accident. Zachary Taylor's black Ford Escape and Billy Cranston's blue Chevy S-10 also were easily recognizable.

There were other cars there that he didn't recognize, probably colleagues and friends of Jason and Katherine from work but there was no sign of a pink vehicle at all. Maybe she wasn't there or maybe she was there and her car intentionally wasn't so he didn't think about her. Shaking his head, he looked at Hayley who pointed towards the house.

With her by his side, they made the walk up the gravel driveway to the front door. Before he had even had time to knock, the door flew open and he was greeted by the sight of a six foot tall man in a gorilla costume.

"No costume for Tommy! Party foul!" the gorilla yelled, moving to turn his plastic cup over his friend's head. Tommy instinctively reached out and grabbed the gorilla's arm before he could make his move.

"You do it and you die, Rocky. My costume's in the bag," Tommy told him, not even having to see his face to know who it was as he opened the bag so he could see what was inside. Rocky stared at it with wide eyes though his gorilla head covered his expression. "I just didn't want to wear it in the car. I need to find a bathroom and change."

Rocky nodded his head and stepped aside, allowing Tommy and Hayley to enter the house in peace. Hayley blushed when Rocky let out a loud roar followed by a whistle at her costume. Tommy watched Rocky put his fur covered arm around Hayley's shoulder, leading her to where the drinks were before turning to find Jason's bathroom. He was just turning the corner in the hallway when he collided with Captain Jack Sparrow from _Pirates of the Caribbean._

They both let out loud groans, pushing themselves onto their feet and then taking a moment to observe who they had just ran into. Tommy stared at him for a moment, not immediately recognizing who it was but it clicked a few seconds later. The eyes were what had done it.

"Adam?" Tommy asked as his friend nodded. "Sweet costume man. I didn't even recognize you."

"That's the point, Tommy. Although I can't say the same about you," Adam laughed, shaking Tommy's hand. "Where's your costume? And don't tell me you came as a teacher either."

"Nah, my costume's in the bag," Tommy told him, opening it for him to see. "I was just about to go change when I ran into you."

"You're not gonna…you're not serious are you?" Adam questioned, Tommy nodding his head. "You sly son of a bitch. I can't believe you're actually gonna wear that thing. Go get changed, dude. I can't wait to see this."

"Alright, catch ya in a minute, bro," Tommy said as Adam clasped him on the shoulder and walked away asking people where the rum was.

Tommy laughed to himself quietly, opening a few doors that led to bedrooms and Jason's office before he found the bathroom he was looking for. Ducking inside, he dumped the contents of the bag onto the floor and started to undress. When he was down to a pair of white boxer briefs and an undershirt, he grabbed the pants for his costume off the floor and pulled them on. It took him a few minutes to get fully dressed and he stuffed his street clothes into the bag, tossing them into the shower and pulling the curtain closed before staring at himself in the mirror.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this shit," he muttered to himself, splashing some cold water from the faucet onto his face. "Well, here goes nothing. If I crash and burn at least I went out with a bang."

The last part of his costume was sitting on the counter. Reaching for it, he opened it and pulled it over his head, locking the clasps on either side but not before he put in his old gold earring for added effect. It was done. His costume was completed. It was now or never.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly pushed open the bathroom door to find Albert Einstein waiting to use the facilities. The look on the face of the famous scientist, his mouth falling open in shock and surprise made Tommy chuckle from behind the concealment of his costume.

"What's up, Billy-man?" Tommy asked, slapping his old friend playfully on the shoulder. Billy kept his eyes trained on Tommy, although he still wasn't entirely sure who exactly he was looking at. The costume was familiar but the man behind it was another story.

"Tommy?" he asked apprehensively, getting a head nod in reply. "You're a sick son of a bitch you know that?" Tommy laughed and gave Billy a friendly hug, his hidden face speaking volumes for his costume. "If you'll excuse me, I need to take care of some business." Tommy nodded again, stepping out of the way as Billy took his place in the bathroom. "Cool costume by the way."

The door shut and locked behind him before Tommy could get out a reply. Shrugging his shoulders, he started making his way back towards the party area. He got stopped at least five or six times by people he didn't know, all in admiration of his "costume" and how authentic it looked. _If they only knew_ he thought to himself.

Almost to the main area, he felt a hand on his shoulder and spun around to find someone who was a lot more easily identifiable than the others he had already ran into. Zack, in a gray jumpsuit, looked at him in confusion. They went through the same rigmarole that he had already gone through with Adam and Billy before he asked who Zack was supposed to be.

"Harlan Band from _Space Cases_," Zack told him with a grin. "Remember that show from when we were kids? You guys always used to tell me I looked like him so I figured what the hell? Although, I wish I had thought about your idea man."

Tommy laughed and threw his arm around Zack's shoulder as he finally was able to get to where the party was happening. Loud music was playing in one room that was illuminated only by strobe lights, the hardwood floor occupied by a group of people dancing. He noticed Adam dancing with Tanya who was dressed as Pocahontas and gave them a wave. Tanya looked from him to Adam in shock and tried to go after him but Adam kept his arm around her waist and her body pressed against his, whispering something in her ear as they continued to dance. In another room, a group of people was playing _Twister_ and Tommy made a mental note to stay as far away from that as possible. Scanning the people in the house, he made a mental checklist of the people he'd already seen.

Rocky? Check. Adam? Check. Billy? Check. Zack? Check. Tanya? Check. Of the people he knew were there, that left Jason, Katherine, Trini and…

"Aisha!" Tommy exclaimed, recognizing her even from behind as he turned her around and pulled her into a crushing hug against his chest. "How have you been?"

"Who the hell are you!?" she replied in surprise, pushing him away. "And why are you dressed up like that?"

"Aisha, it's me. Tommy."

"Tommy?"

"Yeah, Tommy," she breathed a sigh of relief at his words, immediately returning the hug.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I just wasn't expecting…_that_."

"Neither was anyone else apparently," he replied. "Hey listen, I'm gonna go grab a drink and say hi the others but I'll find you in a little bit. We can catch up and all that stuff."

Aisha, in her latex police officer's costume, nodded and smiled, giving Tommy another hug before leaving to chase after Rocky who was already rather inebriated and acting quite stupid. Something's never change. Luckily, Trini was in the kitchen with Jason and Katherine so that meant he didn't have to make multiple stops to explain everything over and over again.

Revealing his face so they didn't ask questions, he tried not to laugh at the expressions on the faces of his friends. Trini, tonight being known as O-Ren Ishii from _Kill Bill_ and Katherine, in full on Marilyn Monroe garb, both started laughing but Jason in his karate gi just stood there shaking his head at his best friend's choice of costume.

"You really outdid yourself this time, bro," Jason said with a laugh, offering Tommy a bottle of Corona which he immediately took from him. With calculated and careful movements, Jason got close enough to Tommy where only he could hear him. "She's gonna love it, T."

"She's here?" Tommy asked. "Like, right now?"

"No, not yet. But she will be," Jason told him as Tommy breathed a sigh of relief. "That gives you plenty of time to get drunk with courage."

Tommy laughed, raising his bottle to his lips as he downed the cold beer in less than ten seconds. He had already told Principal Randall that he wasn't going to be in the next day so getting trashed wasn't a worry for him. Being who he was, he admitted, did have certain perks at Reefside High School, especially when it came to things like this. Randall, having once been Elsa, Mesogog's evil general, gave Tommy a few personal freedoms for saving the city from her path of destruction.

Immediately, another beer was thrust into his hands by Jason and the pair of best friends clinked bottles with each other before taking a drink. They went through three or four beers each without even saying a word to each other. They just had that bond where they could look at one another and know what the other was feeling or thinking. Jason knew what Tommy was feeling _and_ what he was thinking.

His house, in all its' beauty and glory, had eight, yes eight, bedrooms in it. Each was reserved for certain people when they came to visit and they knew who they were. Aside from the master bedroom that Jason and Katherine shared, one was for Adam and Tanya, another for Rocky and Aisha, one for Billy, one for Zack, one for Trini and one for when their parents came to town. But that's only seven, right?

The last bedroom, at the end of the hall as far away from the others as possible, was the one saved for Tommy and Kim. Although they had never actually shared the room and neither of them knew it, they had both slept in the same bed just at separate times. Jason had always wanted them to be together and, in doing that, they were together in some weird way. He was hoping that, tonight, that bed would get put to good use.

Finding himself a little buzzed, Tommy's feet carried him into the bathroom to retrieve his bag of clothes before taking them into that bedroom at the end of the hall. Sitting on the king sized bed, he tossed the bag on the floor and looked around the room at all the pictures on the wall. Some were just paintings of random things and places but others held a more deeper meaning to them.

Hanging right behind the bed was a picture of Jason, Trini, Zack, Billy, Kim and Tommy in the Youth Center right after Zordon had given Tommy the White Ranger powers. How ironic. He sat there for a few minutes in silence until he heard the bedroom door open.

"Jason told me you'd be in here. I just wanted to come and check on you. See if you were okay and all that stuff friends do."

"Thanks, Hayley. I'm okay though," he told her although his eyes were telling a different story. Without asking, she moved to the bed and sat next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. "I guess I'm just nervous. I've waited for this night for so long and now that it's here, I'm afraid things aren't going to work out the way I want them to."

"So what if they don't? I mean, I know how much this means to you but it's not like your life depends on it," Hayley said sternly, causing Tommy to frown a bit. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm pulling for you, I really am but things and people change. If things don't work out between you guys, your life will still go on. Besides, you have me!"

Tommy chuckled at his friend, his laughter concealing his true feelings. But, as much as he didn't want her to be, she was right. His life had gone on without her for a long time and he had accomplished a lot without her there. He had gone to, and graduated from, college, gotten his PhD, worked with some of the most experienced and esteemed paleontologists in the country and created his own team of Power Rangers all without her. None of those were small feats in their own right, together those accomplishments were outstanding.

Sighing, he nodded and stood up from the bed, offering a hand to Hayley who accepted it and allowed him to pull her onto her feet. Taking one last look at the room and all the things he wanted to happen in it, he walked out of the room with Hayley to rejoin the party. Hayley, was just the opposite of almost every other woman he had been with, not that they had "been" with each other.

She had his emotions and his spirit, had broken down his defensive walls but the body never came. Neither of them really wanted it with each other anyways. They were too good of friends, too compatible to ever have a meaningful relationship. He'd have slept with her in a heartbeat and she the same if not for the friendship they shared. If they had just been two random people meeting at a party for the first time, it might have already happened but the bond between them prevented anything from ever happening.

He was her shoulder to cry on and she was his. When something bad happened, they were the first place the other went to for support. Hayley's dad had been hit by a drunk driver a year back and had nearly been killed by it. Tommy had been there for her every step of the way. The night that Tommy and Kim almost slept together, she was the first person he called to talk about it. She listened intently and never once tried to judge or lecture him. They were perfect for each other in every way yet unable and unwilling to do anything about it.

And that was why it always came down to _her._ They weren't perfect for each other. They were two different people from two completely different worlds. She came from a broken home with parents who fought until divorce reared its' ugly head. He had parents, even though they weren't his blood parents, who loved each other more than words could explain. She had been pressured into gymnastics by her father who never once came to see her perform. He had taken up the martial arts under his own volition and his parents made every tournament they could get to.

She loved the color pink. He despised it with a passion, unless it was on her of course. He liked big cars with bigger engines. She liked coupes that went fast but had no real power behind them. She liked chick flicks and stuffed animals, pajamas with her favorite cartoon characters on them. He liked action movies with intense fight scenes, hadn't owned a stuffed animal since he was five years old and rarely wore anything at all to bed.

He was a pizza and beer guy. A salad and diet soda was just fine for her. He liked warm and sunny days where he could be outside and active all day. She preferred cold and rainy so she could curl up on the couch with a blanket and her favorite book.

They were so different yet the synergy between them was unreal. For all the differences that they had, he had never loved anyone in the way he loved her. Despite all their differences, in his mind, they weren't perfect for each other but they were perfect _together._

That doesn't make much sense unless you've loved someone strong enough to do anything for them and not the love you share with a parent or a sibling either. It's a love that burns deep in your heart, a love that forces you to get up and fight each and every day through the good times and bad, the trials and tribulations of life because you know, at the end of the day, that person you love will still be there for you to pat you on the back and fight that same fight with you the next day. And the day after that and the day after that.

For all the imperfections they had in likes and dislikes, they just fit together in ways you couldn't even begin to imagine. He wanted her to be that person, the person he could yell and scream at then turn around and kiss her like nothing had happened. He wanted to wake up next to her every morning and smell the lavender shampoo she had used as a teenager. He wanted to hold her, to touch every amazing curve on her body. More than anything though, he wanted one last chance to tell her he loved her.

Sitting in a silver Dodge Charger in Jason's driveway fifteen minutes earlier, she was thinking similar thoughts. She wanted to fight with him and then have amazing makeup sex. She wanted to inhale the scent of Old Spice deodorant and Polo cologne. She wanted to run her fingers down his chest and abs, his firm muscles shivering at her touch. More than anything though, she wanted one last chance to tell him she loved him.

Having dated Mr. Jerk, Mr. Jackass, Mr. Six Kids By Six Different Women and Mr. Monogamy Is Stupid, she was ready for Mr. Right. It had taken her a long time to realize it but the man she had always wanted, the man she had always loved, had been right there in front of her face the whole time, she had just been too blind to realize it. She had spent years trying to find a man to replace someone who, she was finally realizing, was irreplaceable.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of her car and hit the alarm button on her key ring, the beeping noise telling her that her car was locked. Playing on Tommy's choice of profession, she was dressed as a schoolgirl complete with a short plaid skirt, knee high socks, a white blouse that was tied up to expose her midriff and the sexiest pair of fake glasses the Goodwill had to offer. She had even put her hair in pigtails on either side, something she hadn't done in years. Now was the time to knock his socks off.

Walking up to the house, she let herself in and found…chaos. Rocky had taken off his gorilla head and was dancing with Officer Aisha who had her back to him, grinding up against him. Tanya was playing a similar move on Adam who looked about ready to burst through the seam of his pants. Zack was bent over the Twister mat with two women she didn't recognize and Billy was sitting on one of the couches, engaged in conversation with Trini. Why those two were still dancing around each other was beyond her.

Desperately wanting a drink, she made a beeline to the kitchen where she found Jason and Katherine playing bartender for the crowd. Not even stopping to greet them, she snatched the tequila bottle from Jason's hand and took a long drink from it.

"Well isn't our little schoolgirl so full of manners," Jason teased with a laugh as she shot him an angry look. "Aww, lighten up, sis. It's Halloween. Have a little fun. Tommy's here somewhere."

He said the last part quiet enough so only she could hear it and tried not to smile at the mixture of emotions that wafted over her. She was somewhere in between shocked and elated, more elated than shocked though. After all, she was here for him.

Jason's arms wrapped around her in a tight hug as she finally let go and returned the offered embrace. She got the same greeting from Katherine and politely thanked them for inviting her to the party. Throwing out a "no problem," Jason poured some of the blended margarita from the blender into a cup for her. She took it without hesitation and downed half of it in a matter of seconds, only stopping at the coldness of the beverage going to her brain.

A sly smile came over the lips of both Jason and Katherine and she looked at them in confusion, the looks on their faces not revealing much of anything to her. And then a hand came, resting on her shoulder. She didn't even have to turn around to know who it belonged to.

Instantly, she turned around and found herself staring at _him_. Except _he_ wasn't what she had been expecting, at least not his costume anyway. She burst into uncontrollable laughter as he stood there and laughed right along with her at his choice of costume. The white spandex clung to every inch of his body, the gold and black shield of old covering his chest, his whole head hidden in the confines of his helmet.

There he stood in all his glory, her White Knight. Unlocking the clasps on either side of his helmet, he pulled it off and smiled at her, pulling her into the best hug she had ever received. There was nothing overly special about it, they had hugged like that countless times in the past. But this one, here and now, it meant something different, at least to her.

She stayed that way long after he had tried to break the hug, her head resting against the shield in a way it had done so many times before. In his arms she was safe, comfortable and happy for the first time in a long time.

"I missed you, Kim," Tommy said quietly. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Tommy. More than you'll ever know," she replied, grabbing his hand. "Come on, let's go dance."

There was no need for a long and drawn out conversation between them to settle their teenaged differences. That had occurred a long time ago. The letter had been buried and they had both moved on from it as best as they could. His heart didn't sting from the letter like it used to, it stung because she wasn't around. He didn't care about it because it wasn't a problem. No grudges or hard feelings existed between the pair. They had broken up like thousands of kids their age had done before them and would continue to do long after they were gone.

Dragging him onto the dance floor, she spun him around and pressed herself against his body, smiling when his arms found their way around her waist. They moved in perfect harmony, Kim grinding up against him, dropping low and then popping back up in unison.

A few people were still dancing but their friends had all taken a step back to watch them in action. Tommy, by his own admission, had never been a great dancer but this wasn't really dancing. It was more of a precursor to what they were both hoping would happen later on in the night.

"Kim's definitely got some moves," Hayley commented to whoever was listening, watching as Kim did her best to tease Tommy with her dancing.

"Man, his dick's gonna be sore if he doesn't get laid tonight," Rocky added in a serious tone, getting nothing but laughs from everyone around him including the females. "You guys think I'm joking? With what she's doing to him out there, he's not gonna be able to walk right for a week."

"So says the king of the blue balls," Adam interjected with a grin as Rocky blushed profusely. "Remember that time we all went to the strip club and you forked over all that cash just because you thought she'd bone you at the end of the night?"

Jason laughed loudly, wanting to add his own personal touch to the story he remembered so well but he was too caught up in watching Tommy and Kimberly to say anything. A tug at his hand, however, found him being pulled in their direction by Katherine. He got slaps on the back from all the guys until he was standing right next to Tommy, getting the same treatment he was being given.

The pair of old friends looked at each other and laughed, Katherine and Kimberly exchanging knowing looks and grins between them. Their men were going to get laid tonight, it was just a matter of how long before one of them decided to take it further than sensual dancing. They stayed that way for quite awhile until legs began to wear out.

"Alright, I think I'm all danced out," Kim said in a hushed whisper, grabbing Tommy by the hand. "Let's go somewhere quiet and talk."

He couldn't argue with her and, truth be told, he didn't want to. She could have led him to the top of the Empire State Building, jumped off it and he would have followed her at that point. Jason gave him a sly grin, a firm hand on his shoulder to stop him momentarily.

"Remember," Jason commanded "no glove, no love."

"Shut up, jerk," Kim growled, getting a wink from Jason in reply.

She led Tommy out of the room and down the hall, both of them ignoring the looks their friends were giving them. When she stopped at the entrance to the room at the end of the hall, Tommy looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Why are we going to my room?" he asked, getting the same confused look from Kim that he had just given her.

"Your room?" she asked in reply as Tommy nodded. "This is my room. Jason said it was mine because you can see the lake from the window."

"He told me the same thing," Tommy replied, grins coming over both of them. "I think we've been had, Beautiful. They got us to sleep in the same bed without ever actually sleeping with each other."

"Son of a bitch," Kim muttered, the realization dawning on her. "Those sly bastards. Have you ever looked at the view and seen exactly where it is?"

"More times than you know. I've spent quite a few nights here staring out the window at our spot on the beach," Tommy answered with a smile. "They've set us up completely without either of us having a clue about it. I knew they were good but this? Jase stepped his game up big time for this one."

Kim nodded in agreement, finally opening the door as Tommy walked inside. She closed the door behind them, making sure to lock it and motioned to the bed for him to sit. He obeyed without a second thought like a little puppy dog.

"Look, I don't know how you feel about me but I know how I feel about you. And after that little charade on the dance floor, I think you feel the same way," Tommy told her quietly. "Kim, I've wanted nothing more than to be with you and not just sex either. Not that I'd complain but…that's beside the point. I want you here," he said as he touched his head, "and here," touching his heart. "I'm just…I don't feel complete without you in my life and this whole emailing thing once a week isn't enough for me."

She sat down next to him, absorbing his words as he laid his hand on her knee and she put her head on his shoulder. Hesitantly, she grabbed his hand and brought it to her lips, kissing it ever so softly.

"I'm sorry, Tommy," she replied, his face dropping like he'd been kicked in the groin. "I'm sorry that it took me so long to realize how much I love you, have always loved you. I kept you away for so long because I was afraid I'd hurt you again and I couldn't do that to you, not when you'd forgiven me for doing it once already. I've dated nothing but jerks and assholes since I broke up with you all because I thought I didn't deserve a good man after what I did to you. I don't want you, Tommy. I need you."

"Beautiful," he said, putting his forehead against hers. "You've always had me. Since the moment I saw you for the first time, I knew we belonged together. I've spent the last ten years trying to find someone who could replace you. Then I woke up one morning and realized that was impossible. There's no one I'd rather be with than you, Kim."

And then he kissed her. Just one soft kiss on the lips to test the waters. He didn't know whether he had crossed a line or not but the arm that went around his neck told him to keep going so he did. She moaned against his lips as they crushed against each other.

"Tommy," she moaned.

"Hmm?"

"I'm yours."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

"Make love to me, Tommy."

It wasn't a request, it was a demand and satisfying her demand became his only focus. His instinct took over and he pulled her against his chest, their lips meeting in a passionate kiss, savoring the peppermint taste of her tongue wrestling with his.

She felt perfect in his arms; soft, petite and oh so feminine. It was actually going to happen for them. It was real and it was more perfect than they could have hoped for. A gift from the gods.

She continued to moan deeply in his mouth, his big hands caressing her lower back as she untied her blouse and then pulled his white gloves off. Ripping off her top, she fell back onto the bed, pulling Tommy with her.

This was uncharted territory for them both though. They were locked in passion, taking the step they both wished had been taken so long before this. And as they continued to kiss, time seemed to freeze for them. Tommy moved his kisses down Kim's neck, bathing himself in her wonderful scent.

He couldn't help but stop for a moment to smile at her in admiration. She was everything he had ever hoped for and she was laying there waiting for him ready to satisfy the desire of his heart and body.

"You're so beautiful," he managed in between kisses.

"Shut up and kiss me," Kim commanded, reaching for the concealed zipper on the back of his shield. It took a few minutes but she finally got the shield and top half of his uniform off. Silently, she cursed him for wearing something that took so much time to remove.

In one sweeping motion, he covered her body and mouth with a kiss so deep she could only whimper as her legs locked around his torso, running her fingers through his hair that had been matted down by his helmet. She held on with lust, passion and love.

Tommy shuddered above her, relishing in the way he pressed against her body. They shared long and passionate kisses as Kim grabbed the waistband on his spandex trousers and desperately tried to remove them. With a little help from Tommy, they were finally off and on the floor, leaving him on top of her in nothing but a pair of briefs and a t-shirt.

They didn't care that their friends were nearby, Rocky probably sitting right there at the door listening to them in his ever present horniness. To both of them that only helped to increase the excitement they were feeling, not because of Rocky but because they could be caught and neither of them cared.

She needed him and he needed her. They needed to feel each other in that way neither of them had been ready to experience as teenagers. Her small hands rubbed against his shoulders and back, touching every part of him that she could manage to reach. He moaned in muffled pain when her nails dug into his back, drawing the slightest trace of blood.

His length was pressing against her, the wetness of her panties only fueling his desire to have her that much more. He worked on every square inch of her body from her lips to her neck to her ear lobe and down her body until he reached her breasts and his lips found their way down her chest. They brushed with great sensitivity over her quickly hardening nipples as he sucked firmly as if trying to get something to come out of them.

"Oh God, Tommy. That feels…so…good."

"I love you, Kim."

His voice strained slightly when her hands reaching down between them. She grabbed him firmly but with great care, stroking him slowly until his eyes rolled backwards in his head. Her legs shifted above his hips, parting wide as she offered herself to him.

"Now, Tommy," she practically begged.

"Just let me get a condom," he requested as she nodded in approval.

He kissed her one last time before hopping off the bed, moving to his bag of clothes that had gotten knocked over in their flurry of passion. It took him a few minutes as his hands struggled to open the condom wrapper until he had finally gotten it open.

"Hurry up already," she ordered, Tommy nodding as he climbed back onto the bed and slipped the condom over his throbbing manhood.

Who was he to turn down such a request? Not even trying to prolong his exploration of her body, Tommy eased himself inside of her in one strong and fluent thrust, his reward an intense gasp from her perfect lips. He had had plenty of sex and so had she but no one and nothing had felt this good to either one of them.

Bringing his eyes to meet hers, he found her staring at him with an expression he had never seen on any of his past partners. This wasn't just wanton sex or a drunk fuck, she had an undeniable love for him in her eyes. Kissing her once again, he pulled out slowly, eliciting a groan from Kim. In one swift motion, he plunged himself back inside of her as she moaned in delicious ecstasy.

Kim groaned through clenched teeth, their hips slamming into each other time and time again while she held onto the headboard for dear life on a ride better than any roller coaster could offer. Where her body was soft, his was rock hard and she grabbed his muscular physique, forcing him deeper inside of her.

She tried desperately to keep her eyes open as the first of many orgasms set in, her body shaking as her eyes rolled back in her head. Locked tight around him, she had to grab something so she dug her nails into his back. It would leave a mark, Tommy knew that but he was enjoying this far too much to care. For the first time since Katherine, he was with someone he actually cared about. But even with Katherine it hadn't been like this.

"Oh…my…Gooooood!" she yelled, another climax setting in. "Oh God, keep going. Do it like you mean it, dammit!"

Staring down at her, a smile crept across his lips as his mouth descended on hers once again. She cried out in intense pleasure, Tommy knowing that he was doing his job. Warm sensations ran up and down her back, her mouth hanging open with her eyes shut tight, crying out through the orgasm.

"I love you," she managed in a barely audible whisper.

"I love you too," he replied, driving his hips against her.

He watched as her face lit up in pure and unadulterated ecstasy, each thrust causing her to moan in an intense feeling of pleasure. Their skin, soaked with each other's sweat, glistened in the light neither of them had bothered to turn off. He wanted to look in her eyes when they made love. She felt the same way.

Holding onto his firm butt, she clenched it in her hands, clinging to him as she felt the onset of tears creeping into her eyes. They had waited for this moment for so long. So DAMN long and neither wanted it to end.

She held onto him while he took his time, making love to her with a satisfaction that neither had ever experienced before this moment. This feeling, this passion, this love, they had craved it from each other for years. It could have been three minutes or three hours, the clock wasn't a concern for them because it was that perfect.

Tommy, sensing the end coming, pushed himself inside of her as deep as he could possibly manage, getting another pleasure filled moan from Kim. In a sudden moment, Tommy's body went completely stiff. His eyes rolled back, her name escaping his lips numerous times in between groans and "Oh my Gods,"

Finally finishing, Tommy collapsed on top of her, their sweat covered bodies rubbing up against each others. It had finally happened and it had been amazing. Just like how he had pictured it.

They both laid there in silence, their heavy breathing doing all the talking that needed to be done at that moment. After a few minutes, his breathing had finally steadied and he kissed Kim quickly before rolling off the bed, disappearing into the connecting bathroom to take care of the condom. When he returned a few minutes later, she was sitting up in the bed, the black tee shirt Tommy had worn over covering her body.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked with a hint of embarrassment. "I don't want this night to be the end of us."

"No one said it had to be," Tommy answered, trying to kiss her but finding himself being pushed away, a nervous and partially fearful look on Kim's face. "Beautiful, I meant what I said earlier. I want to be with you and not just for the night, either. I love you in every way a man can love a woman. I'm not saying I want to run off and get married right away but I do love you and I want to build a relationship with you. Things won't be like they were before but they'll be new, fresh, maybe even better."

The sounds of muffled laughter came from outside the bedroom door, easily recognizable as belonging to their friends. All of them most likely. Rolling his eyes, Tommy tried to kiss her again and this time she allowed it.

"I love you, Tommy," Kim said with tear filled eyes once they had broken the kiss. "I love you so much. From this moment on, I'm yours."

"I love you too, Kim. I always have," Tommy replied, wiping away the lone tear that fell down her face. "I've loved you since the moment I saw you at the karate tournament. You were amazing then and you're even more amazing now."

She blushed, pressing her lips against his in another kiss. Reaching across his body, she hit the light switch as the room fell dark. Tommy, taking the hint, climbed under the covers with Kim's tiny body curled up against his.

In one amazing and perfect night they had erased ten years of loneliness and heartache. There would be no more letters, no more heartbreak and no more years of being apart. They were finally together again, perfect in every way.

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_DAMMIT! I tried desperately to get this finished before midnight. I really wanted this to go up before Halloween ended. Sorry guys, it's a little bit late. Hopefully there aren't any glaring spelling, punctuation or grammar mistakes in this. Usually, I edit my work pretty closely but I pretty much just glazed over this one cus I wanted to get it out as soon as possible. I really hope you liked it._

_WK_


	2. A Little Christmas Spirit

_December 3rd_

_7:14 p.m._

_1483 Laurel Circle_

_Angel Grove, CA_

In a typical suburban neighborhood, the inside of a typical suburban home was in the process of being decorated by two people who were everything but typical. Christmas music was playing inside the home, but it wasn't the usual holiday jingles that most families play during this time of the year.

_Outside the carolers start to sing,  
I can't describe the joy they bring,  
Cause joy is something they don't bring me._

_My girlfriend is by my side,  
From the roof are hanging sickles of ice.  
Their whiny voices get irritating,  
It's Christmas time again._

_So I stand with a dead smile on my face,  
Wondering how much of my time they'll waste.  
Oh god I hate these Satan's helpers._

_And then I guess I must have snapped,  
Because I grabbed a baseball bat,  
And made them all run for shelter._

_It's Christmas time, again.  
It's time to be nice to the people you can't stand, all year,_

_I'm growing tired of all this Christmas cheer.  
You people scare me,  
Please stay away from my home.  
If you don't wanna get beat down,  
Just leave the presents and then leave me alone._

Kimberly walked out of the kitchen and over to the small portable stereo sitting on the floor in the living room of her house and pushed the power button. From his position on top of a ladder, hanging up Christmas decorations, Tommy heard the music turn off, looked down on Kimberly and saw her frowning up at him.

"You've had that stupid song on repeat for the last twenty-five minutes," Kimberly said, defiantly folding her arms across her chest. "Where's your holiday spirit gone off to, Mr. Oliver?"

"It's Dr. Oliver," Tommy grumbled, driving a nail into the plaster above Kim's door so he could hang a wreath there. Kim flinched a bit at the sound of the hammer hitting the nail with such great force. "And I hate Christmas."

Digging into his cargo pants, Tommy pulled out his iPod and inserted the ear buds so he couldn't hear Kimberly questioning him as to why he hated Christmas and everything about it. His explanation was a stupid one and one that he didn't want to give for it was an explanation that should have long since been forgotten.

With an angry flip of her hair, Kimberly spun around and headed back towards the kitchen to pull out another batch of Christmas goodies from the oven. The smell of freshly baked Peanut Butter M&M cookies, red and green colored candies only of course, wafted into the air and teased her sense of smell. As she pulled the cookies out of the oven and set the tray on the stove, she turned to look at the place in the family room where the Christmas tree, _their_ Christmas tree, was going to go.

She and Tommy had been "officially" back together since the day after Jason and Katherine's Halloween party, though the events of that evening certainly said differently. Less than two months later and they were now spending their first Christmas together since…

That's when it all suddenly started to hit her. And it didn't just hit her, no. It plowed into her with the force of something like a dozen Mack trucks, maybe even more. Now, she had a pretty good understanding as to why Tommy hated Christmas with such an intense passion.

The last Christmas that they shared with each other was spent rescuing Santa's workshop from another one of Lord Zedd's crazy schemes. It was also the day of the last kiss that they shared together and the last time that they saw each other before she sent him the breakup letter.

_Well, I'm not going to let his little pity party ruin the first Christmas that we've spent together in twelve years. I want this Christmas to be special. It's our first one together in so long, it just **has** to be special._

Checking to make sure that Tommy was still occupied by the music coming from his iPod, she walked into the living room and picked the phone up from the dock. Dialing the number, she was hopeful that the person she was looking for would be able to help her get Tommy out of the anti-Christmas funk he was experiencing.

"_Hello?_" a deep male voice answered after the third ring.

"David!" Kim exclaimed happily. "It's Kimberly!"

"_Kimberly!_" David Truehart, Tommy's brother, returned with just as much excitement in his voice. He would forever love the Crane for patching the Falcon's wounded heart. "_I haven't seen or heard from you since Thanksgiving! How are you?_"

Kim winced at the mention of Thanksgiving. It had been at the home of Jan and Thomas Oliver, Tommy's parents, and Kim, along with David and Sam Truehart had been invited to celebrate the holiday with Tommy's adopted family. Everything had gone well until midway through dinner.

Against Sam's wishes, David started verbally questioning the idea of a Native American, especially one like him with such close ties to his tribe, actively participating in a holiday like Thanksgiving. Tommy tried to show it to him from the other point of view, their opinions clashed heatedly and the two brothers had almost come to fisticuffs right there in the dining room.

Cooler heads eventually prevailed, though, and after much effort from both Kimberly and Sam, Tommy and David calmed down enough to end their argument peacefully. In the end, the two brothers agreed to disagree, knowing that, while they didn't necessarily understand or share the other person's viewpoint, they could still be accepting of it, nonetheless.

"I'm good," Kim answered, pacing back into the kitchen. She tucked the phone against her shoulder so she could insert another batch of cookies into the oven. "It's Tommy that I'm worried about, actually."

"_My brother isn't giving you any trouble, is he?_" David asked. Kim let out a lighthearted chuckle and said that he wasn't. "_Good. Because if he is, I want you tell him that he'll have the wrath of a whole angry tribe of Thanksgiving hating Navajo to deal with._"

"I promise you, he's not giving me any trouble, David. And if he does, I'll be sure to let you know," Kim said with another laugh, this time with David returning it. "I was actually hoping to speak with Sam about Tommy for a minute. Is he around by chance?"

"_Yeah. I mean, he should be at least. I don't know where else he would be,_" David replied. "_You know how Sam is, though. Always popping up at random times. Just give me a minute and I'll go see if he's here for you._"

Kim mumbled her thanks to him and then waited patiently for David to find Sam, watching Tommy with sadness in her eyes. She hated seeing him like that, especially when she was part of the reason he looked so upset. A few seconds later though, she was brought back into reality when she heard the always comforting voice of Sam Truehart coming from the other end of the line.

"_Ahh, my graceful Crane. Hello to you. To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your sweet voice on this beautiful morning?_"

"Hello to you too, Sam," Kim smiled, digging through her refrigerator for something to drink. "How have you been since Thanksgiving?"

"_I have been well, my dear. The world has been a kind place to this old wise man,_" Sam replied and Kim couldn't help but giggle at that. The world had been more than kind to the shaman. Though he didn't move like a young man anymore, his mind was still as sharp as a tack. "_But I sense that this is not just a social call. I also sense that the flight of the falcon has drifted. That is why you have called me._"

Kimberly was both in awe and disbelief. She still hadn't fully gotten used to the way Sam operated; the premonitions, predictions and just the general way he spoke, as if he knew everything in the world but didn't care if you believed him or not, were still pretty new to her.

"You're right, Sam. It is Tommy," she sighed and took a drink from her water bottle, moving from the kitchen to her bedroom down the hall. After locking the door so Tommy didn't walk in, she found her comfy chair in the corner of the room and sank into it. "He's upset because it's Christmas time and we don't exactly have…"

"_The best history when it comes to the holiday season,_" Sam finished for her.

"Wha…y-yes," Kim continued, shaking her head slightly. "How did you know that?"

"_It is not the 'how' that is important, my dear, for I know much. But it is the 'what' that you should be concerned with,"_ Sam answered, leaving Kim to think about that with a puzzled look on her face.

"What do you mean, it's the 'what?'" Kim asked as she crossed her legs and pulled herself onto the chair sitting Indian style.

"_It is the 'what,' just as I have said,_" Sam replied. "_You already know why it bothers him. Now you must figure out what you have to do to change that._"

"Sam, I-," Kim started. "What should I do?"

"_Nothing that you had not already planned on doing. The Crane will always hold the key to the Falcon's heart,_" Sam spoke. "_Enjoy…_" he said and then paused for a moment, "_your Christmas miracle, Kimberly._"

Kim heard the line click and realized that Sam had hung up on her. She thought about calling him back but decided against it, tossing the cordless phone on the bed instead. Normally, someone hanging up on her would have been met with an immediate, and furious, call back but not this time.

Sam had said some things to her, things that made a lot of sense when she really thought about them. Now she just had to piece it all together and figure out what she had to do to make Tommy not hate Christmas so much.

The framed picture on her nightstand gave her an idea and she was just about to pick up the phone when she heard the handle on her bedroom door being jiggled. A knock came a few seconds later and she got out of the chair to open the door. Tommy was standing there with his jacket on looking like he was ready to leave.

"Going somewhere?" Kim asked, a tinge of disappointment in her voice.

"Yeah, I gotta get going. I still have to prepare finals for all my classes," Tommy answered. Kim nodded in understanding, stepping out of her room and reaching out to take his hand as they started to walk towards the front door. When they got to the door, he bent his head down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. "Bye, Beautiful."

"Bye, Handsome," she replied, opening the door for him. She gave him another kiss goodbye and then watched him walk down the driveway towards his Jeep. "Hey!" she called out. Tommy stopped and turned around to face her. "We're still going to get the tree this Thursday, right?"

Running his hand through his air, Tommy looked at her with exasperated eyes. He didn't want to go and the only reason he agreed to was because he knew how much getting a Christmas tree meant to Kimberly.

"Yeah, I guess so," Tommy mumbled, stuffing his hands into his pants pockets. "But I still don't understand why you can't just ask Jason or Rocky or one of the other guys to go tree hunting with you. I hate Christmas."

"Because Jason and Rocky aren't my boyfriend. _You _are," Kim shot back, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "Besides, after this Christmas, I promise you that you won't hate it anymore."

"Yeah, yeah. I doubt it but whatever," Tommy grumbled. "I'll call you when I get back to Reefside tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Kim replied, frowning as Tommy turned and continued to walk towards his Jeep. "I love you!"

"I love you, too!" Tommy yelled back as he climbed into his seat.

She stood there on the porch, watching him until the black Jeep was down the street and turned the corner, disappearing out of sight. Locking the front door behind her, she headed back to her bedroom and snatched the phone off the bed. For a brief moment, she considered calling Jason to see if he could talk some sense into Tommy but thought better of it.

Tossing the phone back onto the bed, she pushed herself out of the chair, heading for the den and her laptop computer. With her Platinum Card in hand, she started to search online for something that she knew Tommy would enjoy. She was determined to make sure he had a good Christmas even if it meant that she had to buy his holiday spirit to do so.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_December 7th_

_3:05 p.m._

_Room 114, Anton Mercer Science Hall, Reefside Tech_

_Reefside, CA_

Watching his last class of the semester finishing up their finals, Tommy tapped his fingers impatiently on his desk. The end of this class meant the end of his first semester as a teacher at Reefside Tech. He was ready to get out of teacher mode for awhile and enjoy the month-long winter vacation that was so much better than the two weeks he got teaching science at Reefside High School.

Looking over the top of his glasses, he stared up at the corner of the lecture hall at a trio of students, none of whom were working on their tests. They were simply sitting in their seats in patient silence as if they were waiting for something to happen.

Tommy sighed and leaned back in his chair, staring up at the clock on the wall as it inched closer and closer to ten-after-three. At this point, he would have chopped off his left pinky to make the clock move faster. All he wanted to do was collect their finals and make a beeline for his Jeep.

Though the prospect of going Christmas tree shopping after class didn't really excite him, he was anticipating it simply because he wanted to get it out of the way as soon as humanly possible. When the clock finally hit 3:10, he breathed an exasperated sigh of relief and stood up from his chair.

"Okay, guys. Your time is officially up," he announced. "Put your pencils down and place your test sheets and Scantrons on my desk in separate piles."

As each person slowly made their way down the stairs and to his desk, he thanked them all individually for taking his class and wished them a happy holiday before they departed. When he had all the tests, he leaned across his desk, slanting his head to look at the back corner of the classroom again.

"And then there were three," he said to them, chuckling as they started to walk down the stairs towards his desk. "So, how do you guys think you did on your tests?"

"Aced it, Dr. O," a young African-American male exclaimed. Placing his test on the desk, he playfully slapped one of his counterparts on the chest. "I don't know about soccer boy over here, though."

"Shut up, Ethan," he grumbled, putting his test and Scantron on the top of their respective stacks. "Besides, I think I did okay."

"Just okay?" Tommy asked, peering over his glasses at the young man. "Conner, I thought you told me that you were going to study with Ethan and Kira to make sure you did well on this test. It's half of your grade."

"I know. And I did study," Conner replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "The whole anatomy of humans versus the anatomy of dinosaurs thing screwed me up though."

"Well, if that's the only part you struggled with then you should still do fine," Tommy told him, turning his attention to the last member of the trio. "How about you Kira? How do you think you did?"

"Somewhere in between Ethan and Conner like always," she laughed, adding her papers to their separate piles. "The part on geology during the Mesozoic era was a little tough but nothing too hard."

Tommy laughed and started to neatly stack the piles together, separating them with paper clips before putting them away in his briefcase.

"Well then maybe I'll have to make next semester's final harder," he added, looking at his three protégés with pride. They had come a long way from being the self-absorbed teenagers they had been when he had first met them three years prior. "You guys _are_ still planning on taking my Intermediate Biology class next semester, right?"

"I'm in," Kira answered.

"Oh, for sure!" Ethan beamed.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Dr. O," Conner replied with a sarcastic eye roll. Tommy gave him the infamous Oliver Stare, slanting his head and raising one eyebrow at the young man. "Hey, just kidding. You know how much I prefer cutting up frogs to playing soccer and chasing babes."

"Shut up, Conner," Kira mumbled, smacking him on the back of the head. "You don't get to 'chase babes' when you're in a relationship with someone. At least not when that someone is me."

Conner shot her a wink and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side. Kira tried hard to pull away from him and put him in his place but he gave her the puppy dog eyes. She melted when he gave her the puppy dog eyes.

"Kira, you know that I only have eyes for you, babe," he smirked, kissing her on top of her head before turning his attention to Tommy. "So, uh, Dr. O…do you have any big plans for the holidays now that Santa has a Mrs. Claus to keep him company in that big lonely workshop of his?"

"Shut up, Conner!" the other three all yelled in unison.

"What!?" Conner shouted back. "I heard the elves weren't very social and I-" he looked at Tommy, got a disapproving look and fell silent. He looked at Ethan and Kira, got disapproving looks and kept going. "You know, you two telling me to shut up all the time is starting to get really old. You'd think you all would treat your leader with a little more respect than that. I bet Kimberly and Jason never told Dr. O to shut up."

"First off, pal, _former_ leader," Ethan corrected, knowing he was rubbing a sore spot. "And if you didn't say such stupid things so damn much, we wouldn't have to tell you to shut up all the time."

Conner opened his mouth for a comeback but Tommy held up his hand to stop him and the former Red Ranger immediately became quiet again. In his three years of being around Tommy, Conner had only seen the hand come up a handful of times. When it did happen, the three young people knew not to ever question it.

"No more, guys. Please. I've had a long day and an even longer semester," Tommy said with clear exasperation in his voice. "On top of that, I have to go Christmas tree shopping with Kim in three hours and I really don't want to go. So please, for my sake, end it."

All three nodded in understanding and put their bantering aside for the moment. Kira, however, had been hit by part of Tommy's plea for a temporary truce and wanted to pry a little further for information from him.

"Why don't you want to go get a Christmas tree?" Kira asked as Conner pulled her in even closer. "Getting a tree is like, one of the best parts of Christmas. I just wish our apartment had enough room for a really big one."

Conner nodded his head in agreement with her. He loved Christmas just as much as Kira did and was equally disappointed when they couldn't get the big tree that they had both so badly wanted in their apartment's living room.

"Be glad it doesn't, Conner," Tommy mumbled, shooting him a serious look. "You'll be picking pine needles up for weeks after you take it down."

"So what?" Ethan asked in interjected reply, shrugging his shoulders. "It's Christmas, Dr. O.

You're supposed to be all happy and bubbly, full of joy and all that other stuff Hallmark puts on their greeting cards."

"I hate Christmas," he grumbled, averting his eyes from them. He felt so immature saying it, yet his hatred for the holiday burned deeply within him. "You guys wouldn't understand so don't even ask."

True, none of them could understand how someone could hate Christmas so much but after seeing the anger and despair in his eyes, they knew that it was true. It was clear that he really, truly, legitimately hated Christmas.

At that moment, never in her whole life had Kira so desperately wanted to reach out and slap the man who had both taught her in the classroom and mentored her on the battlefield. It took all the strength inside of her, both natural and Ranger-enhanced, not to do it, but even then her arm flinched a couple of times.

"Why do you hate Christmas, Dr. O?" Kira asked, defiantly ignoring his request for them not to question him.

He gave her a look that said 'do you really want to push me right now?' and she returned it with one that said 'do you really want to deal with me if you don't answer the question?' Sighing, he ran his hand through his hair in typical Oliver fashion and fell back into his chair.

"Look guys, I really don't want to talk about it, alright?" he tried, hoping they would just leave but there was a firm defiance in their eyes. He knew that they weren't going anywhere, at least not until he answered them. "Christmas brings up a lot of bad memories for me. The same year that she left, Kim came home from her training in Florida to spend Christmas in Angel Grove with myself and the rest of the team. It was the last time that I saw her before she broke up with me. Ever since then, I haven't been able to enjoy Christmas."

Conner and Ethan looked at him in understanding but Kira appeared as if she had never heard a more ridiculous thing come out of anyone's mouth before. The urge to slap him increased tenfold and before anyone could say or do something to stop her, her open palm met the side of Tommy's face with a resounding crack.

For a few seconds, everyone just froze. No one dared to say anything and no one moved. Then, slowly, Conner, with his mouth agape, turned his head to look at Kira who had a fire in her eyes the likes of which he had never seen before, while Ethan looked down at Tommy who was gingerly rubbing his cheek.

"I have never been more ashamed of anyone in my entire life," Kira growled, the three males wincing as she spoke. "Christmas is supposed to be about family and appreciating what you have, not what you don't. You have Kim in your life now. You should be thankful for that. Maybe we're not the only ones that still have some growing up to do."

With that, she pushed herself in between Conner and Ethan, heading up the stairs and out of Tommy's classroom. Two minutes passed before any of them had the courage to say something.

"Dr. O. I'm sorry for what she did. She was way out of line, but please don't be mad at her," Conner started, hoping Tommy would understand and not be angry at his girlfriend. "She's just always loved Christmas so much and now that her family moved back to the east coast and she's here in Reefside, she's upset that she can't celebrate it with them. She sees people who don't appreciate what they have…not that you don't or anything. It's just…"

Tommy put up his hand and Conner fell silent once more. For a moment, Tommy looked at his hand and realized that it carried an immense power when used this way. It was something he knew could come in handy at a later date, if not more at this time.

"It's okay, Conner. She's right, you know?" Tommy replied, surprising his two charges. Conner and Ethan both looked at each other dumbfounded, their mouths hanging wide open. "I'm not a kid anymore and I shouldn't let the past affect my future. Maybe it _is_ time for me to let go of the past and grow up a little bit."

"I wasn't going to say it but…" Ethan's voice trailed off at the Oliver Stare. "I have my final in stats in fifteen, so I'm gonna go ahead and split."

"Yeah, I should probably go track down Kira and see if she's okay," Conner added, trying not to stare at the red mark on Tommy's cheek. "I'll see you later, Dr. O."

The trio of former Power Rangers shook hands, Tommy watching his young friends as they climbed the stairs, grabbed their backpacks off the floor and then exited his classroom. Tears slowly started to fill his eyes, but only when they were out of the room did he let his true emotions show. He started to cry, not from the pain of the slap to the face that Kira gave him but from the truth of her words, slapping him in the heart.

Yet, he still hated Christmas. Kira chastising and slapping him hadn't changed that, it had only made him come to a realization. The realization that, just because he didn't enjoy the holiday didn't mean that he had to ruin it for Kim by being a jerk and that he could still do his best to make sure that at least one of them had a merry Christmas.

And with that realization, came two more. One, he was going to be late to meet Kim in Angel Grove for tree shopping if he didn't hurry. Two, he hadn't done a lick of Christmas shopping yet and there were only eighteen days until Christmas. Between that, grading finals and term papers, and spending every other waking moment with Kimberly, he knew what he was in for; a very, very busy holiday season.

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_Later that night…_

Tommy couldn't help but smile when he looked down on Kim as they walked through row after row of Christmas trees. It wasn't a very cold night, maybe a little nippy by Angel Grove standards, but Kim was bundled up like it was the second coming of the Ice Age. She had long underwear on under her jeans, a puffy black jacket over her green-and-orange University of Miami Gymnastics sweatshirt, boots on her feet, a black beanie on her head, a green scarf around her neck and pink mittens to boot.

When he looked at her like that it made her seem just a little more innocent, a little bit more like the teenaged Kimberly he had fallen in love with so many years ago. That didn't mean he wanted the old Kimberly back though. No, he was very much in love with this one. The feeling he got was more like a warm sense of nostalgia, the kind that takes you on a joyride back to one of the best times of your life.

"Easily one of the best," Tommy mused, out loud though it was unintentional and in a hushed voice.

He silently cursed himself when he realized he had spoken the words and not thought them but Kimberly didn't seem to notice. Tree after luscious tree had her captivated. She literally was like a kid at Christmas time.

When Tommy saw how much she was thoroughly enjoying the whole "Christmas experience," he felt his heart warm up to the idea of not hating it anymore. Not enough to completely break the ice, but enough to put a chip into it. She looked too damn cute for it not to have an effect like that on him.

"What kind of tree should we get, Tommy?" Kim asked, spinning around in a circle to look at them all. "There are so many, I just can't choose. What do you think?"

Tommy had to ponder the question for a moment, thinking about not only a suitable answer but one that would make Kim happy. And as he thought about it, he had to fight the smile that was trying to form on his face.

"I don't really give a damn to be honest with you. I couldn't care less what kind of tree you got," Tommy snapped. Kim stared at him for a moment and swore his eyes were going to flash green at any moment. "You could pick the biggest, best looking tree in the whole lot or you could pick the most dilapidated looking piece of garbage and I still wouldn't care. And do you know why that is?"

"Wh-why?" Kim asked, flinching when Tommy made a move towards her.

"Because it would still be _our_ tree and as long as it's _ours_, something that you and I did together, I'll always love it," he replied, shocking her, making her tear up, and melting her heart all at the same time. He reached out for her and she, albeit slowly, stepped into his embrace. "I love you, Kim. And I always will."

"You're a jerk, you know that," Kim chuckled through tears, slapping him playfully on the shoulder. "You can't just come at a girl like you're angry and then say one of the sweetest things I've ever heard."

"I know, but…" Tommy started but his voice trailed off when he felt another wave of nostalgia hit him. He looked down on Kim and smiled. "Would you hate me if I told you I didn't want to make it too easy for you?"

The moment the words escaped his lips, Kim felt it too. _At the lake, right after he kissed me for the first time and then asked me to the dance. God, he knows just what buttons to push to make a girl feel all warm and fuzzy inside._

"Tommy, did you mean what you said about loving anything we did together?" Kim asked suddenly.

Asking that surprised herself a little bit but didn't seem to phase Tommy in the least. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her with the most serious expression that she had ever seen before.

"Kim," Tommy began, "anything." He pressed a kiss against her forehead and then put their foreheads together, looking down into her eyes for a few seconds to drive his point home before pulling back. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Kim shrugged. "Something to keep tucked away in the back of my head for future reference and/or blackmail," she added with a laugh as she spun around in another circle. "Which one, Tommy!? Which one do we pick!?"

Tommy shrugged his shoulders and took her by the hand as they continued down the row of larger sized trees. Kim suggested a few on the way but he shook them off. He was trying to be open minded, he just wasn't seeing any trees that he really liked.

As they stepped into the section of mid-sized trees, his eyes fell on a tree about ten feet down the narrow dirt and gravel path. Immediately, even from a distance, he knew it was the right tree for them. That was only further cemented in his head with each step that brought them closer to it. When they came to it, Tommy stopped walking and squeezed Kim's hand to get her to pause as well.

"What do you think about this one?" he asked, grabbing the trunk on the eight-foot tall Douglas Fir. "I kinda like it."

"Oh, yeah?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "And what is it about this tree that makes it so much better than all the other ones we've seen."

"I don't know to be honest," Tommy replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I just see it and it seems like the right tree for us. It's beautiful in its' own right but strong and sturdy too, like it could take a beating and still bounce back up to fight the next day. Kinda like us…"

"Just like us," Kim muttered, staring at the tree absentmindedly. She kept her gaze on the tree for a few moments and then turned to Tommy, nodding her head in vehement agreement. "I want this tree. This is the one."

"Okay, Beautiful. This is the one then," Tommy smiled, moving towards her.

He put his arms around her, bending his head down to place a soft, long, loving kiss on her lips. The taste of strawberry lip gloss teased his lips while the moon shone brightly behind the embraced pair, illuminating them perfectly in front of the only tree in the whole lot that they had both deemed worthy to be their own. Their lips lingered for a few moments before Kim pulled back for air, finally breaking the kiss.

"Do you wanna stay her and wait while I get one of the attendants to help us?" Tommy asked, touching her shoulder softly, basking himself in her radiant beauty. "Or do you want me to stay and you can get him?"

"I'll wait here and you can go," Kim answered, pecking a kiss on his cheek. "But don't be long. I think I need another taste."

Tommy winked at her and Kim gave him a low growl in reply. He leaned in for another kiss but she pushed him in the chest and grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him in the direction of the blue E-Z-UP tent about an eighth of a mile up the path.

Grumbling to himself, he tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans and slowly started towards the tent. When he got to the tent he found two teenaged kids working who were less than friendly and he felt the Holiday Hate-O-Meter tip back towards the red a little bit.

He had been gone for over twenty minutes by the time he got close enough to see Kimberly with two other people standing next to her, the three of them apparently engaged in a conversation. The wavy brown hair and red sweatshirt on the male along with the curly haired, blonde female in a black turtleneck, her hair tucked under a yellow beanie, instantly made him think Conner and Kira but he pushed that thought aside. After all, they were in Reefside and he was in Angel Grove, two hours away from each other.

The closer he got to them, however, the more it started to look like it really was Conner and Kira standing there. Kim turned and met his eyes, waving at him as the pair turned to look in his direction. He moaned when he saw that it was them and Kira yanked her head away with embarrassment when he looked at her.

"Goddammit," Tommy grumbled, kicking one of the pebbles in front of him. "And things were going so well, too. But then again, I'm Tommy Oliver. Everyone always rains on my parade. Why should I expect that to change now?"

"Hey, old man. You okay over there?" the teenager asked.

Tommy froze on the spot. Kim saw this and gasped when he whipped his head around to stare at the little piece of shit who was about three seconds away from getting tossed into a cluster of pine trees.

"Old man?" Tommy questioned. The kid just shrugged his shoulder and nodded his head, oblivious to the fact that he may have said something that could have been deemed offensive.

"You know what? Just get the damn tree and keep your mouth shut until I'm out of earshot."

"Whatever you say, dude," the kid replied, switching the roll of twine he was carrying to his other shoulder.

He stopped with pure confusion littered all over his face and stared at the kid who was still walking towards Kimberly, Conner and Kira. Was the kid really that thick? Hadn't he just told him to keep his mouth shut?

That was another tick towards the red for him and suddenly he was starting to really dislike Christmastime again. He just didn't understand how people could expect him to be so upbeat and chipper just because it was Christmastime when there were so many people around him who were so inherently rude and inconsiderate of their fellow man.

When he finally got back to Kimberly his nerves had calmed a bit and the needle had moved away from the red and into the yellow. It still hadn't gotten to green but seeing Kimberly so excited about the whole Christmas thing still made him hopeful to the possibility of him actually enjoying Christmas.

Heck, just being with her in the tree farm had made him forget all about his altercation with Kira after class that afternoon. When he looked at Kira, was actually quite surprised that he didn't feel any anger or bitterness towards her whatsoever. He was as genuinely glad to see her and Conner now as he had been when he saw their names on his class roster at the beginning of the semester.

"Dr. Oliver, I just wanted to apologize to you for earlier," Kira blurted out the moment he had come to a stop next to Kimberly. "I had no right to…"

The hand came up and Kira stopped talking. Oh yeah, getting used to having _that_ ability at his disposal was _not_ going to be a problem for him. In fact, he rather enjoyed being able to silence someone with a simple wave of his hand.

"Kira, don't apologize. You have nothing to apologize for," Tommy murmured, placing his hands gently on her shoulders. "You had every right to do what you did. It stung my face but it stung my pride a lot more and it made me realize that I was really acting like a child. So, for that, thank you."

"Uh, you're welcome…I guess," Kira blushed, surprised at his reply. "Still, I shouldn't have slapped you like that. I was criticizing you for acting like a kid and then I reacted just as immaturely. I _am_ sorry for doing that."

Kim and Conner smiled at each other and then at their significant others making peace with each other. It was a true testament to the bond that they shared not only as teammates, but as friends too.

"What do you say we call it water under the bridge, or over the dam, or wherever the hell water goes and move on?" Tommy asked with a laugh. Kira chuckled and nodded her head, accepting the hug he offered as an agreement to their truce. "So we're good, then?"

"Yeah, Dr. O. We're good," Kira smiled.

Tommy nodded his head as Kira turned to look at the tree being bound in twine by the teenaged employee. Then it struck him once again that Conner and Kira lived in Reefside yet they were here in Angel Grove.

"So, Conner," Tommy started, turning his attention to the former Red Ranger. "What brought you guys out here all the way from home?"

"Uh, I don't really know to be honest," Conner shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck in true Conner fashion. "I don't call the shots in this relationship. I go where I'm told and don't ask questions."

"I have him well trained," Kira interjected, laughing as she kissed him on the cheek and then looked at Tommy. "Would you believe me if I told you we came here because I felt so guilty that I wanted to apologize to you immediately?"

Tommy looked at Kim and shrugged his shoulders. Normally, he would have questioned her further, peppering her with queries like: "Why did you feel the need to hunt me down in Angel Grove?" or "How did you know where to find me?"

Instead, he took the answer for what it was worth, smiled at Kira and accepted it. Then the Hate-O-Meter ticked again, this time coming dangerously close to the line in between yellow and green.

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_December 17th_

_5:14 p.m._

_Angel Grove Mall_

_Angel Grove, CA_

With Jason by Tommy's side, the pair of best friends made their way through the mall like two high school kids. They were carrying bags of gifts in their hands, laughing loudly as they walked along the top floor. Occasionally, one of them would nudge the other when a good looking woman walked by. They'd stop to stare for a moment and then turn back, realizing that nothing compared to what they had waiting for them at home. It was just one of those lessons that had to be learned multiple times to really drive the point home.

For his mom, Tommy, in a store that resembled Pottery Barn but smaller and not a chain store, had found the perfect little stone sculpture of a mother looking down on her young son with a proud smile. He could visualize it standing next to the little pond in his parents' backyard and smiled, knowing his mom would love it.

At the downstairs sports memorabilia shop, he had gotten his dad a jersey signed by NFL and San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana, his dad's favorite football player. Though his dad would never wear the jersey, he could see it in a frame on the wall behind his desk in the den. That was another great snag.

Normally, he just got his parents a gift certificate for a nice dinner but this year he had decided to go for something a little more sentimental. It was only natural that his best friend tagged along to make the process enjoyable as well.

After the Halloween party, all the former Rangers had tried to remain in better contact and Kim had suggested a little Secret Santa game between them. They had all agreed to do it but Justin being away at college left them a Ranger short and odd in numbers. Kim suggested Hayley step in for Justin, everyone agreed, they drew names and the game was on with a fifty dollar limit on the gift.

Ironically, Tommy had drawn Jason's name and Jason had drawn Tommy's. And while neither of them had known it at the time, it became painfully obvious an hour earlier when they walked by a kiosk selling Asian weaponry.

Jason looked at the Bo staff, knowing that Tommy would love it. Tommy looked at the pair of nunchaku, knowing that Jason would love them. Then they looked at each other and, as if sensing what the other was the thinking, burst out laughing.

The Bo staff had ended up wrapped in tissue paper and was now tucked under Jason's arm for "his person." Since the nunchaku cost a little less than the Bo staff and Jason was standing right there when he bought it, those and a few Shuriken were in one of Tommy's bags.

Along the way, Jason had picked up a couple of things for his parents and Katherine, along with a pink rubber chicken as gag gift for Kimberly. And since Jason had done that, Tommy now had a Chia Pet shaped like a cat for the second Pink Ranger.

They were almost done with their shopping but Tommy still needed to get something nice for Kimberly. He had gotten her a few small things: some lotions from Bath & Body Works, perfume from JC Penny's, and a couple movies from Best Buy but he still hadn't found _it_yet and _it_ was what he was waiting for.

For two hours he had avoided places like candy shops and jewelry stores, hoping that he would be able to find her something in a place that wasn't so stereotypical. Now, however, he was running out of options and since he wasn't going to give her candy for Christmas, it was off to one of the jewelry stores for them.

"Every kiss begins with Kay," Jason harmonized as they walked into the store.

Tommy just laughed and shook his head as a salesman immediately came to greet them.

"How are you two gentlemen doing this evening?" he asked, extending his hand towards

Tommy who took it, then offered it to Jason who did the same. "I'm Eric. I'll be here all night so just take a look around and don't hesitate to let me know if you need any help."

"I'm Tommy and this is Jason," Tommy replied. "And thanks. I'll let you know if I need anything," he added, patting the young man on the shoulder.

The young man nodded curtly and turned to attend to another customer. He was only nineteen,

twenty tops yet the kid carried himself with poise and maturity. On top of that, he was polite as well. It was young people like that who gave Tommy hope for the future.

"You know, maybe you _can_ help me," Tommy called out to him. The young man turned around and immediately walked back over to him. "I'm looking for something nice to get my girlfriend for Christmas."

"Okay. Are you looking for a ring?" Eric asked. Tommy thought about it for a second then shrugged his shoulders. He didn't really know what he was looking for, just that he'd know it when he saw it. "Perhaps a necklace or a pair of earrings?"

"A necklace might be nice, bro," Jason interjected as Tommy nodded in agreement. "I bet Kim would love a nice locket with a picture of you two inside it."

"Yeah, but I was thinking something a little more…" Tommy paused and thought about it for a moment. "Classy, I guess? Does that make me sound egotistical."

"No, no. Not at all, sir," Eric answered, waving his hands in front of his face. "May I ask you a personal question, sir?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess," Tommy replied.

"How serious are you about this girlfriend of yours?" Eric questioned.

Jason had to look deep within himself to not burst out in fits of laughter right there in the jewelry store. _How serious is he? Jesus, man. The guy's been in love with her since the moment he saw her. Look at his eyes. You can tell he's thinking about her right now 'cause his eyes are twinkling. It's so __**obvious**_

"Honestly?" Tommy returned and Eric nodded his head. "I love her more than anything on the planet. We've known each other since we were teenagers and I've never loved anyone more than I love her."

"I see. Well, it sounds like she's a very special woman and that she deserves something that will really show her how much you love her," Eric replied as Tommy nodded. "Why don't you follow me and I'll show you to our finer collection."

Tommy knew that it was all just a sales pitch and that the kid had no vested interest in what he got Kimberly, but dammit he was good at his job. The kid knew just what to say to keep him interested and he had gotten Tommy hook, line and sinker.

When they came to a stop in front of a glass case holding nothing but high priced diamond pieces, Tommy felt his credit card burning his butt through his wallet. The burning sensation didn't go away completely but it did fade a bit when Jason pointed to a piece at the bottom of the case. Tommy was sold the moment he laid eyes on it.

He refused to look at the price on the receipt when he signed for it. Being a college professor had increased his salary but most of that extra money was going to paying off the credit cards he had used to fund the Command Center in his basement. Still, the dent in his wallet was worth it if, come Christmas morning, Kim had the smile on her face when she saw it that he was hoping she would.

With everything they needed tucked away in almost a dozen bags between them, Tommy and Jason made their way down the escalator towards the exit. They were almost out the door when Tommy caught another one of those pesky kiosks, this one selling charm bracelets. Kim already had one but it was almost full and she had been talking about starting a new one since they had gotten back together.

Tommy made Jason wait for him while he ran over to the stand and picked out all the charms he wanted to put on her new bracelet. He came back ten minutes later with a smile on his face and the last gift he needed to complete his Christmas shopping.

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_December 24th_

_7:48 p.m._

_1233 Old Ranch Road_

_Angel Grove, CA_

It was Christmas Eve and eleven former Power Rangers and one former, err…Hayley, were gathered at Jason's house to celebrate the holiday. Most of them had been there for a few hours but two had just arrived.

Earlier that evening, Tommy and Kimberly had done Christmas with his parents and, like Tommy had expected, his gifts had gone over wonderfully. In exchange, his parents had given them plane tickets to Miami along with tickets for a University of Miami football game in January.

Though Kim tried to leave Florida in the past, she would always bleed orange and green for her beloved Hurricanes and Tommy had loved the team since seeing highlights of Jim Kelly playing for the school in the 1980's. It was the perfect gift for the pair who, at the insistence of Tommy's mother, had also exchanged a gift between themselves earlier.

Knowing that they wanted to save the major stuff for Christmas morning, they had exchanged one of the smaller gifts. Tommy had been given _Superbad_ to add to his DVD collection and Kimberly was now the proud owner of Alicia Keys' newest record, _As I Am_.

Now they were walking into Jason and Katherine's house to celebrate Christmas with their best and closest friends. The last time they had been here they had gone in for the Halloween party separately and left that morning the same way. Now they were going in together with no intentions for it to ever be different.

As the pair stopped in front of the Christmas tree in the family room to add their gifts to the small pile, Tommy couldn't help but notice the long, thin package tagged with his name. Hayley, having followed them from Kim's house walked in right after them as Tommy let out a knowing laugh at his gift and then set the bag with Jason's name down next to it. Kim set down her gift to Rocky, a boxset collection of old Kung Fu movies as Hayley did the same with her present for Trini, the same boxset collection of old Kung Fu movies.

Hayley and Kim had gone shopping together in Reefside the same night Tommy had gone with Jason in Angel Grove so they knew what the other person was giving. From Tommy, Hayley had heard that Trini was into classic Kung Fu films so the boxset had jumped out at her almost immediately.

Knowing Rocky would love it as well but not wanting to give the same gift as someone else, she had tried to find something else but to no avail. At Hayley's urging and reassurance that it didn't bother her, she ended up getting the boxset for Rocky.

Hand-in-hand with Hayley close behind them, Tommy and Kimberly made their way into the spacious living room. The others were gathered on various pieces of furniture throughout the room, snacking on different appetizers while nursing bottles of beer and glasses of wine. As soon as Jason saw them walk in he was up and out of his seat on the loveseat with Katherine to greet them.

"Hey, hey, hey! There they are!" Jason exclaimed with excitement in his voice as he walked towards them. "Merry Christmas, you guys."

"Same to you, Mr. Scott," Kim smiled, giving him a hug and accepting the kiss on the cheek he offered to her.

"Merry Christmas, Jason," Hayley added. She went for a handshake but Jason went for a hug then Jason went for a handshake and she went for a hug before they finally managed a quick embrace.

Tommy and Jason exchanged no words, just offered each other a hug that said everything between them that needed to be said; things that simple words could never even come close to touching.

They were who the other went to for advice or when things got rough. They enjoyed each other's successes and mourned each other's failures. They celebrated in each other's happiness and comforted the other in times of sadness. They were, in layman's terms, the absolute best of friends, though that term didn't really do their relationship very much justice. Their bond was something much more than just friendship.

Katherine came up to greet them next, followed by Adam, Tanya, Rocky, Aisha, Zack, Billy and Trini. The greetings themselves took almost twenty minutes before everyone had gotten settled back down in their positions in the living room.

After microwaving a few bags of popcorn and replenishing drinks for his guests, Jason popped _A Christmas Story _into the DVD player. His parents had moved to Arizona a few years back and since he couldn't always get there to celebrate with them, he made it a point to share his biological family's tradition of watching the movie every Christmas Eve with his second family.

Laying on the floor next to Kimberly, Tommy started to stir in his position somewhere around the twenty minute mark. He had to pee and he needed another beer.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom and grab another beer, Beautiful," he whispered, pushing himself off the floor. "Do you want me to get you anything from the kitchen while I'm up?"

"Nope, I'm fine," she whispered back. "Thanks though."

"Okay, then," Tommy replied and then, just to be sure, decided to double check. "Are you sure you don't want a glass of wine or a beer or something?"

"Yep. I'm sure," Kim answered, pointing to her can of Sprite. "One of us still has to drive home tonight, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Tommy winked, giving her a quick kiss. "I'll be right back."

Kim nodded and grabbed a handful of popcorn out of the nearby bowl as Tommy walked away, popping it into her mouth and washing it down with a swig from the soda can. She stopped and stared at the aluminum container for a moment, turning it back and forth in her hand before returning it to her coaster on the coffee table above her head.

A few minutes later, Tommy came sliding back into his position next to her on the floor with a freshly emptied bladder and a freshly opened Heineken in hand. He settled in next to her and she rested her head against his shoulder as they watched the rest of the movie in mostly silence.

Every once in a while, someone would comment at a funny part or say something to try and spark conversation but, the fact of the matter was that there wasn't a whole lot that really needed to be said between them. They all knew what the others were doing now that they had been in better contact with each other, so the general small talk was rather pointless. Besides, talking about their current jobs and lives never seemed to compare to talking about the way their lives used to be.

When the movie finally came to a close and the credits started to roll, it was just a few minutes before ten o'clock. At the urging of Jason and Katherine, the group slowly started to make their way out of the living room and then found seats in various places around the Scott-Hillard Christmas tree to exchange gifts.

"Alright, let's see who's first," Zack called out, picking up a random package, that also happened to be the largest one, to read the tag. "Looks like this one's for our resident amphibian."

The group of former Rangers all laughed as Zack passed the gift to Tommy who in turn handed the huge box it off to Adam. Shaking his head and laughing at the sheer size of the package, Adam tore off the wrapping paper and ripped open the box only to find a smaller wrapped box inside of it.

This went on for almost ten minutes with Adam's patience wearing at each discovery of smaller and smaller boxes until it came to an end at the sight of an envelope. Letting out an exasperated sigh, he couldn't help rolling his eyes at the Best Buy gift card signed "_With love_" in Rocky's poor excuse for chicken scratch.

"Very thoughtful, Rocko," Adam said sarcastically though Rocky beamed with pride as if it had been the most creative thing ever. Since Adam had just gone, he got to pick the next present so he bent down and retrieved a bag. "This one's for Jason."

He extended the bag and Jason looked at Tommy as he took it from Adam. Immediately, they both started laughing while the others stared at them, oblivious to their little inside joke. Slowly, and with tears in his eyes from laughing so hard, Jason let out a sigh as he slumped against his chair and set the bag on the floor.

"Thanks for the nunchucks and throwing stars, Tommy," Jason deadpanned suddenly. "They'll go awesome on the weapon wall I have in the basement." Ten heads, all except Tommy's, turned to stare at him in utter disbelief. Jason just laughed and picked up another gift, recognizing Aisha's name in Trini's handwriting. It was obvious that she had tried to conceal it but Jason had known her for too long not to recognize it. "This one goes to Aisha."

Jason handed it across the couch to Adam who took it and then passed it down to Aisha. For the first time so far, the purpose of the Secret Santa game actually worked and Aisha had no idea that the bottle of perfume and seeds for her garden had come from Trini.

When it was all said and done, the only other time one of them visibly showed that they knew who their gift came from was when Tommy opened up his Bo staff. He and Jason had gone into fits of laughter again, once more choosing not to let them in on their inside joke.

Rocky and Trini followed Tommy and had both loved the Kung Fu DVD's from Kimberly and Hayley. Katherine and Zack had exchanged gifts as well; a picture book and DVD on Australia for Kat while Zack got a collection of old Motown vinyl records that Jason had suggested to his wife, knowing that Zack liked to play around with sampling old musicians to influence the music he currently made.

Next came Hayley who opened her package from Aisha, a beautiful charm bracelet with various charms that Tommy had suggested for their significance to his former technical advisor: a cup of coffee and a computer to represent the café, a dinosaur for her tenure with the Rangers and a New Zealand flag for her homeland. Having known Hayley the longest, and better than anyone else, Aisha had gone to Tommy for shopping advice and the charm bracelet, while not a completely original idea on his part, seemed perfectly made for Hayley.

Billy and Tanya were two of the last three remaining to get their gifts which, ironically, ended up being from each other though neither of them knew that. Per Trini's interjection, Tanya had gotten Billy a handful of three-dimensional puzzles of science related things like the Hubble Space Telescope and a space shuttle.

For her gift, Tanya had unwrapped a beautiful, hand-painted, sunset depiction of the African plains. Dozens of native animals grazed peacefully in the tall grass with the setting sun in the background giving the picture a faint orange glow to it. It reminded her of home so much that she nearly burst into tears and she made sure to walk around the room, giving everyone a hug just to make sure that she got to thank the person who gave it to her properly.

With only one present left under the Christmas tree, Tanya picked up the bag that she knew was from her husband and passed it around to Kimberly. The bag was large, but not heavy, and Kimberly was surprised when she opened it and found nothing but an elegant white binder with the word "Us" in big, flowing, gold script. She pulled the binder out with steady hands which started to shake when she actually opened it.

Slowly flipping through the pages, her eyes started to water at the pictures slipped into plastic lamination sleeves. Almost all of the pictures, about half in color and half in black and white, were candid shots of her and Tommy. Most of the photographs she had never even seen before and had not a clue as to where they came from.

"Adam?" she asked softly, eyes trained on the book as she flipped it to the next page. "Where in the world did you get all of these pictures from?"

"Oh, uh, I, uh, took most of them actually," he stammered, squinting his eyes a tad to accompany the half-smile on his face. Then everyone looked at him in surprise and he started to blush.

"When did you take all of these, Adam?" Kim questioned again. "I've never even seen most of these before."

"Oh, you know, random times, I guess. I always had my camera in my backpack when we were kids," Adam answered, moving to stand behind Kimberly. He pointed to a picture showing a younger version of herself and Tommy, sitting on the edge of a cliff in front of the Command Center. Tommy had his arm around her waist and Kim was comfortably tucked against his side, the two of them staring out into the sunset. "I'm pretty sure I took that one a few hours after we got you back from the 1800's."

Now the others had all gathered around closer to see the pictures that had Kimberly so close to having an emotional breakdown. She felt Tommy's hand rubbing the small of her back and smiled at him as she pointed to another picture.

"What about this one, Adam?" she asked of the photo depicting the pair roughhousing in the pool at Stone Canyon Water Park. "Do you remember when you took that?"

"Yeah. How could I forget?" Adam replied, letting out a soft chuckle. "That was the day before the Thunderzords were destroyed. Kinda ironic now that you think about it, huh?"

"How's that, Adam?" Tanya asked from her new position standing next to him. The others all looked interested to know as well.

"Well, if you think about it, there was no monster attack that day. It was the first time in weeks that we hadn't had to either fight Putties, deal with a full-blown monster or both," Adam answered. Tommy, Kimberly, Billy, Aisha and Rocky, the five who had been there with him, nodded in remembrance. "We got a whole day to just relax and goof off. We didn't care if it seemed immature to go to the water park at sixteen. We thought it was the best thing in the world when it was really just the calm before the storm."

"Well that's certainly a rather bitter and morbid twist on the situation," Billy laughed.

"Eh, you say morbid, I say realistic," Adam shrugged with a grin. Kim pointed to another picture and started giggling, this one embarrassing Tommy to no end for now he knew that he would never be able to live that moment down.

He, Kimberly, Adam and Aisha had been the only ones in the Youth Center on a night after a pretty intense battle. Adam had taken Aisha off to the side to do some sparring and somehow Kim managed to get Tommy onto the balance beam. He tried to spin around and ended up losing his balance, tumbling off the side of the contraption. The photo had captured him in all his glory, his arms flailed out as he fell towards Kimberly's outstretched arms.

"You were so cute on the beam that day," Kimberly grinned, patting him gently on the cheek. He looked embarrassed and he could feel Rocky on his other side, poking him in the ribs, but he refused to look at him. "You're graceful on the ground, Tiger, but you were Bulk-clumsy on the balance beam."

"Tiger, huh?" Rocky interjected, laughing at the pet name he had never heard Kim use before. "That's very Mary-Jane Watson of you, Kim."

"Fuck her!" Kim said in an enthusiastic drawl. She looked up at Jason, saw the condescending look on his face and smiled at her surrogate brother. "Seriously, fuck her. I saved the world in real life, dammit. She just rode the coattails of a superhero in a fictional universe. If I want to call my boyfriend 'Tiger,' than dammit, I'm gonna do it! So there!"

She folded her arms across her chest defiantly and let out a humph before settling back against the couch. The room fell silent for a few seconds after Kim's outburst then, as if on cue, everyone immediately started to laugh out loud.

"Ahh, that was golden, Kim," Jason breathed in between a spurt of laughter. Kim beamed proudly at him. "Absolutely brilliant!"

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it," Kim replied. She rested her hand on Tommy's knee and turned her head towards him, dropping her voice down to a whisper. "It's getting late. We should probably get going."

Tommy looked down at his watch, saw that it was getting close to midnight, and then nodded his head in agreement. He took the last swallow out of his beer bottle and pushed himself off the couch, offering Kim a hand up.

"Alright, guys! We're gonna head out for the night!" Tommy announced, silencing them in the process. As Jason got up and gave Kim a hug, Tommy lowered his voice when he embraced Jason. "You and the wife still coming over for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, bro," Jason answered, shooting him a quick wink as he patted him on the shoulder. "We'll give you a call around one or two. That sound cool?"

"Yeah, man. That works," Tommy replied. "Thanks for having us all over, bro. That was really cool of you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jason's the coolest. I've heard it all before," he laughed, then pushed Tommy towards the door. "Get out of here, man. We'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright, man. I'm going already!" Tommy chuckled. "God, you just can't wait to get me out of here, can you?"

They both laughed a little more, shook hands and then bid each other goodnight for the evening. Tommy and Kim exchanged hugs, handshakes and goodbyes with the rest of their friends and then headed hand-in-hand for Kim's silver Dodge Charger sitting on the street, at the end of the driveway.

"So, did you have fun tonight?" Kim asked, the pair lowering themselves into their respective seats; Kim behind the wheel and Tommy riding shotgun.

"You know, I really did. I really did," Tommy answered, smiling at her as he reached across to buckle his seatbelt and managed to steal a quick kiss. "But I think tomorrow is going to be even better than today."

"Oh, yeah?" Kim questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

Over the past few weeks she, with Kira to get it kick started, had managed to break away at Tommy's hatred for Christmas. Between celebrating with his parents in the early evening and then with the team later, she could have sworn that Tommy actually seemed to be enjoying himself, or at least pretending to be. Hell, at that point, she would have taken pretending just to not see Tommy looking so glum and beat down all the time.

"Yeah," Tommy replied, taking her hand as she slowly pulled her car away from the Scott-Hillard household. "Tomorrow's Christmas and I have the feeling that it's going to be an amazing day."

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_December 25th_

_7:03 a.m._

_1483 Laurel Circle_

_Angel Grove, CA_

Tommy groaned when he heard the alarm clock on the dresser next to Kimberly's bed buzzing loudly in his ear. By the time they had gotten home the night before, it was well past midnight and Kimberly had instigated a little early celebration since it was, technically, Christmas morning. Long story short, neither got much sleep that night.

After years of waking up at the crack of dawn for gymnastics practice, Kimberly was used to waking up early with not much sleep. Tommy, on the other hand, was not. He taught four classes a day, four days a week, and none of them started before ten o'clock in the morning. For that reason, and that reason alone, he loved being a college professor.

Subconsciously sticking his hand out to feel for Kimberly, he muttered a few incoherent nothings into his pillow when he realized she wasn't there. His eyes started to flutter, struggling to open until it dawned on him that it was Christmas morning. Slowly, and with great effort involved, he pushed himself out of Kimberly's bed and headed for her bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, with the three S's completed and his teeth brushed, he pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms and a Reefside Tech t-shirt, slipped his feet into his moccasins and headed for the smell of coffee emanating from the kitchen. Kimberly was sitting at the kitchen table when he walked in, reading the paper and occasionally stealing sips from the steaming mug in her non-page turning hand.

"Morning, Beautiful," Tommy yawned as she got up from the table and met him halfway in the most loving hug either one of them had ever had. "Merry Christmas, sweetheart."

"Merry Christmas, Tommy," Kim smiled up at him, their lips meeting in a gentle kiss. "Come on. Let's have some breakfast and then we can open presents."

"Sounds good to me," Tommy replied, moving to pour himself a cup of coffee. "What's on the menu on this fine Christmas morning?"

"My mom's homemade cinnamon rolls," Kim replied, giggling when Tommy licked his lips. "They're in the oven right now. Give 'em another minute or two and they'll be good to go."

Tommy nodded his head and, as Kim turned to grab something off the counter, he stepped behind her and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against him. She let out a soft moan and allowed Tommy to just hold her in silence until the oven started to beep at them.

"That's my cue, Handsome," she muttered, gently pushing his hands away. "Go sit down and I'll bring you a plate after I put the icing on."

Never one to argue about being served a meal, Tommy pecked a kiss on her cheek and then headed for the kitchen table. He scanned the sports page for a few minutes, sipping his coffee while waiting for Kimberly to return with breakfast.

Three more minutes passed before she came out of the kitchen carrying two plates, each holding an oversized cinnamon roll, with napkins and silverware tucked underneath the plates. Tommy reached up and gave her a hand by taking the plates and setting them down on the table for her.

The pair ate mostly in silence, stealing the occasional kiss and feeding each other bites of the breakfast pastry. When he took his last bite, Tommy dropped his fork and put his hand on his stomach as if to say "no more." Kim tried to take his plate but Tommy stopped her, refusing to let her do all the work. After all, she was doing most of the cooking for their dinner with Jason and Katherine later that night.

After rinsing off the plates, loading them into the dishwasher, covering the remaining cinnamon rolls with cellophane and sticking them in the fridge, Tommy and Kim made their way into the family room. Tommy plopped down on the floor in front of the Christmas tree and reached up to grab Kim by the waist, pulling her down and into his lap.

"You go first, Kim," he whispered into her ear.

Snaking his arm around her body and under the tree, he extracted a wrapped package and offered it to her. Kim took it from his hands and slowly started to tear away at the colorful wrapping paper.

"The Shirley Temple Collection! Tommy, you're the best!" Kim gushed, turning the box of movies around in her hands before leaning her head back to kiss him. She picked up a present from under the tree and tried to give it to him but, since she was in his lap, there was no real way for him to open it without contorting his body into an awkward position. Begrudgingly, she scooted out of his lap and slid around the carpet to sit next to him instead. "Here. This one is for you."

Tommy smiled down at her and took the package from her hands, setting it down on the floor in between his outstretched legs. He ripped off the paper and pulled out _Madden '08_ for his XBOX 360.

"Kim, you do realize you won't see me for like a month now, right?" Tommy asked playfully. Kim just laughed and shook her head. "It's probably a good thing you don't let me bring my XBOX over here."

"That's the right game and everything, right?" Kim asked. "The guy at the Circuit City store wasn't very helpful."

"Yep. It's just what I wanted. Thanks," Tommy replied, offering her a kiss. He pulled out another present and handed it to her. "This one is for you from Jason. I tried to talk him out of it but he insisted."

Okay, that was a lie. In fact, Tommy encouraged Jason's purchase of the pink rubber chicken but that didn't mean Kim had to know that. She laughed wholeheartedly at the artificial poultry then stood up and walked to the other side of the tree to grab a big package that Tommy hadn't noticed before.

"David swung by the other day and dropped this off for you," Kim told him, laying it down flat in front of him so that he could open it easier. "He told me to tell you that Sam wanted us to both come by the reservation for dinner soon."

"We'll have to go then," Tommy replied as he ripped the paper away.

His eyes widened at the framed picture hand painted by his brother. It seemed simple at first, an empty field of green grass set under the night sky, but upon further inspection, Tommy saw so much more. The five helmets he had worn as a Power Ranger were painted, in chronological order, so softly and so perfectly into the night sky that he hadn't noticed them initially.

"Wow. That's amazing," Kim breathed, tracing her fingers along the outline of Tommy's White Ranger helmet. "David is a really good painter."

"Yeah. He is," Tommy murmured, still captivated by the sheer majestic beauty of the painting. "I think I'm gonna hang it above my bed at home."

They went on like that for thirty minutes, exchanging presents between each other, always stopping to thank and kiss the other person for each and every gift. Along with the video game, Tommy had gotten a calendar for his desk at school, a bottle of cologne, a coffee table book on martial arts and two tickets to see Van Halen. Kim ended up with her Shirley Temple movies, a basket of assorted lotions and bath products, a bottle of perfume, a gift certificate for a day at the spa, and a handful of CD's from her favorite artists.

Tommy had two more presents and Kim had one more gift to give, though Kim's wasn't under the tree, but concealed in the one place Tommy would never think to look. Yet, it seemed like it was just too early to be done. The timing was off and they were both in their pajamas still. Tommy didn't want it to be like that when Kim got her last gift and vice-versa.

"So, those two are the end of it," Tommy muttered, pointing to the two remaining boxes under the tree. They were tiny, and obviously screamed jewelry but Tommy didn't care. It was the end result that he was looking forward to. "I guess you can open them now but I kinda want to save them till later though, so that you'll have something to open up right before you go to bed tonight."

Kim looked at the two small boxes nestled under the Christmas tree and silently pondered it to herself for a few moments before turning her attention to Tommy and nodding at him.

"I think I can wait," Kim replied. "Besides, I have something else for you, too. Something that I don't really want to give you just quite yet."

She winked at him and Tommy smiled, leaning down for another one of the many kisses that they shared that morning. They became engrossed in each other, entangled in one another's arms, and before either of them knew it, Tommy had Kim hoisted into the bridal position, carrying her towards her bedroom.

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_Later that night…_

"Merry Christmas, you guys!" Kim yelled, waving to Jason and Katherine as they walked down her driveway towards their car. "Drive safe!"

"Don't worry, I will!" Jason yelled back, opening the door for Katherine to get in. "Merry Christmas and thanks for dinner!"

"You're welcome! Bye guys!" Jason and Katherine waved goodbye and Kim shut the door, turning around to find Tommy standing behind her.

Her Christmas dinner of ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole and apple pie for desert had gone over wonderfully. The dishes were all loaded, the house was both clean and empty, and now that Tommy had on a nice pair of jeans and a crisp button up shirt, he was more than ready to finish what they started that morning.

"I believe I have something else for you, my dear," Tommy swooned, taking Kimberly by the hand into the family room. He sat her down in the couch by the tree and reached down, grabbing the two small boxes. "You ready?"

"Yep," Kim replied. _The question is, are you?_

Tommy nodded and handed her the first box. With delicate motions, she peeled away the pink wrapping paper to discover a white box. She lifted the lid and her eyes lit up when she saw the charm bracelet. Bringing the bracelet to her eyes, she started to examine each of the individual charms.

There was a charm with a balance beam on it, one with a pink heart, one with their initials and one after their initials that said "_Always_" in cursive. After that came a sequence of letters, and as Kim read them aloud individually, Tommy tucked his hands behind his back and started to unwrap her last gift.

"M-A-R-R-Y-M-E-Question mark?" Kim asked then started to break it down into words. "Marryme…marry me?"

She slowly lifted her head to look at Tommy, eyes growing wide when saw the small black box in his hand holding a one carat, three-stone, diamond ring completed perfectly by an elegant gold band. Tommy got off the couch and lowered himself down to one knee and Kim felt her eyes well up with tears when he reached up and took her right hand.

"Kim, I know we've only been back together for two months and under normal circumstances, I'd say this was too quick but we aren't normal people and these aren't normal circumstances," Tommy murmured softly. "You've had my heart from the moment I laid eyes on you almost fifteen years ago and there's no one I'd rather spend the rest of my life with than you. So, Kimberly Ann Hart, will you marry me?"

"Tommy, I-I…I want to say yes, but I can't," Kim replied. Tommy felt his heart sink. This wasn't how he had imagined it happening when he envisioned this moment in the jewelry store. "I can't say yes until you see what I have for you. If you like what you see, then the answer is yes."

He raised his eyebrows at that. While she hadn't said yes outright, she hadn't completely turned him down either which meant that there was still hope for him after all.

"Show me," Tommy told her, getting off his knee to sit on the couch.

Kim nodded her head and walked to her bedroom, leaving Tommy to wait. She came back a few minutes later clutching a manila envelope to her chest. It was painfully obvious to Tommy that she was concerned about something when he saw her body start to shake.

"Come here, Beautiful," Tommy called out to her, slinking his arm softly around her waist then pulling her down to the couch. He wrapped both arms around her and gave her a tight hug, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "What's wrong, Kim?"

"Promise me you won't get mad," she muttered, keeping her eyes on the floor.

"Kim, what-" Tommy started.

"No," Kim interrupted before he could finish. "Just promise me that you won't get mad. That's all I want to hear from you right now."

"Fine," Tommy answered with concern, not only for her but for the future of their relationship as well, in his eyes. "I promise that I won't get mad at you.

"Okay," Kim replied, slowly extending the manila envelope towards him. "Here it is. Merry Christmas, Tommy."

Tommy smiled at her and opened the envelope, shaking out a single piece of paper that fluttered down to his lap, landing face down. He flipped it over and looked at it for a moment, noticing its' similarities to an X-Ray while not immediately recognizing what it was. There were a bunch of random, white letters and numbers in the black portion of the paper along with Kim's full name typed out along the bottom.

As he started to piece everything together, he realized that the paper in his hand definitely wasn't a simple X-Ray. No, it was much more than that. Kim's final Christmas present to him had been an ultrasound.

"Kim, is this-" Tommy started, unable to take his eyes away from the paper to look at her. "Is this really what I think it is?"

"I don't know," Kim answered, shrugging her shoulders with a sly grin on her face. "I guess that mostly depends on what you think it is."

"Is this…I mean, is it…you know…" Tommy stammered. He wanted to just come out and say it but he couldn't find the right words so he resorted to caveman tendencies and touched her stomach. "Is this paper you?"

"It is," Kim replied, taking it from him. She pointed to the small shape her doctor had shown her two and a half weeks earlier and pointed it out to Tommy. "And that right there is the beginning's of our future son or daughter."

"You mean that you…you're pregnant?" Tommy asked. Kim chuckled and nodded her head as he stared at the ground in disbelief. "Wow. This is…amazing. I can't believe we're going to have a baby."

"So, you're okay with this?" Kim asked. "You're okay with being a dad?"

"Kim, I'm more than okay with being a dad. I'm ecstatic," Tommy answered. His words came out quietly but his eyes showed the honesty his voice betrayed. "I'm just so in shock I don't really know how to react. I mean, I don't even understand how it happened. I've always used protection."

"Condom's break, Tommy. Accidents happen," Kim replied then shook her head back and forth. "No. You didn't just hear me say that. I don't ever want to think of the baby that we made as an accident."

Tommy reached out and took her hands, using his thumbs to gently stroke the area above her knuckled. She could tell just by the look he had in his eyes that he was genuinely happy about the news.

"Do you remember what I told you that night, right before we got our Christmas tree?" Tommy asked. He didn't wait for Kim to reply, just kept on talking. "I told you that I would love anything we ever made, did or created together. I love you and I love the child you are carrying."

"Oh Tommy, I love you so much," Kim gushed, throwing her arms around his neck. "I want to marry you. I want to be Mrs. Kimberly Oliver. I want to be your wife."

Looking at Kim's tear-filled eyes, Tommy tried to suppress the onset of his own tears but seeing Kim crying only made him want to cry more. To combat the crying, he added in an awkward laugh as they embraced each other tightly on the couch.

"How far along are you?" Tommy asked after a few silent moments had washed over them.

"Almost two months now," Kim replied. She looked at Tommy as he tried to figure out the timeline in his head. His eyes widened at the realization and Kim just nodded her head. "Yep. Halloween."

"Wow," Tommy murmured, relaxing against the couch. "I'm glad we had that nice long talk the next morning and decided we really wanted to be together."

"Yeah, me too," Kim muttered absentmindedly. Her attention just wasn't really there at the moment. She had been hit by too many emotions all at once and was just patiently waiting for it all to come back down.

In the moments of silence that followed, Tommy reflected on the last few weeks and managed to put a lot of things into perspective. Like Kim choosing Sprite over wine at Jason's the night before. Then there was the tree farm when she asked him if he was being honest after he told her he'd love anything they made together.

"When did you find out?" he asked, snapping her from her stupor. This time, Kim turned to look at him when she replied.

"Remember the day you came over to help me decorate the house?" Kim asked and Tommy nodded. "You were in such a funk that I called Sam for advice on what to do. We talked and right before we hung up, he told me to enjoy my Christmas miracle," Kim continued, leaving Tommy to shake his head in bewilderment. Even after all the years he had known Sam, the Wiseman never stopped amazing him. "Three days later, I realized that I was, you know..._late_. I took a home test that came back positive, went to my doctor and she told me I was almost six weeks pregnant."

That pretty much confirmed his suspicions for him. While pondering the logistics of everything that had happened recently, it had become obvious to him that Kim had known for much longer than she let on and had simply been biding her time, waiting for the perfect moment to tell him.

In that light, she had succeeded in flying colors. Everything had been absolutely perfect so far on this very special Christmas day, everything except for two little things that Tommy had temporarily forgotten about but just came back to him.

"Kim?" he called out softly. She looked back over at him as he took her hand and held up the ring for her to see. "May I?"

The tears came back immediately the moment the words came out of his mouth. Somehow, she managed to nod her head and hold it together just long enough for Tommy to slip the ring on her finger. After he had done that though, she flung herself at him and buried her face against his shoulder, letting it all out.

She had enough tears for the both of them but Tommy was both willing and able to add his tears to the flood as well. For the longest time they just sat there on the couch, rocking each other back and forth, the only noise coming from the occasional sob or random chuckle.

"Thank you, Kim," he muttered, breaking the silence but not his hold on her.

"For what?" she asked, keeping her face nuzzled against his neck.

"I don't know, a lot of things. For being the mother of my future child and for saying yes to being my wife," Tommy answered, pushing back a little to look her in the eyes. "For loving me enough to put up with my mood swings when no one else would. But most of all, on this day, for showing me the true meaning of Christmas."

Kimberly, unable to find any good words, nodded her head and looked into his eyes with nothing but absolute love and admiration for him in her own. Together, as a team, they had experienced the best Christmas season that either one of them had ever had. And together, they had more than just one…Christmas miracle.

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_Yay for 34 pages of almost nothing but Tommy/Kim fluff! So, what I decided to do is make this a continuation of my Halloween story. What I'm going to do is write one-shots but only when it's around a holiday. Everything will remain in a continuous universe as we see Tommy, Kimberly and the others on various holidays throughout the year. _

_With that being said, here's wishing for a very safe and happy holiday season for you and yours from me. And on a side note, yesterday was my 11 month anniversary on FF. As I approach the one-year mark, I feel like I'm writing better and better every time I put out a new chapter or one-shot. I owe a lot of that to you guys, especially the ones who have stuck with me since the dark ages, when I put out trash like _Back To Action. _kdmarks and jps1926, you two ladies are the best reviewers a writer could ask for. You're both awesome._

_Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and say goodbye for now. Again, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, whatever it may be. I'll talk to you soon._

_WK_


	3. New Years Savior

_Happy freaking New Year everyone! Let's hope 2008 is just as awesome, if not better than 2007. And with that, onto the story..._

It was December 28th and the year 2007 was on its' last leg, finally coming to a close after what had been one of the craziest years that both Tommy and Kimberly had experienced. Not only had Tommy changed jobs but Kimberly had moved back to Angel Grove, she and Tommy had gotten back together on Halloween then engaged on Christmas and now Kimberly was pregnant with their first child.

Even though it was still somewhere between six and seven months before she was set to give birth to their first child, Kimberly was walking out of the Angel Grove Mall at closing time with almost a dozen bags filled with everything from clothes and toys to diapers and pacifiers.

Sure it may have been a tad overboard considering that she wasn't due until Summer 2008 but she was just too damn excited to not buy as many baby items as she could find. Since she and Tommy had already agreed to keep the baby's gender a surprise, everything in the bag was neutral-sex.

In any town other than Angel Grove, she wouldn't have thought twice about asking for some type of security escort to her car considering that it was almost ten o'clock at night. But Angel Grove had always been home and home had always been safe when not under attack by crazy, rampaging monsters. There was rarely any crime and when something did happen, it was always petty things like shoplifting, never the more serious atrocities that occurred in bigger cities.

Having that knowledge, knowing that the town she lived in was safe, had always been a comfort to her that was only amplified when she thought about her future with Tommy in Angel Grove. Every once in a while, she'd subconsciously look down at her stomach and rub it, smiling at what she was carrying inside of her.

Almost as soon as she had told Tommy that she was pregnant, Tommy had gotten in contact with some old college professors, looking for a teaching position at Angel Grove University the day after Christmas. And that, along with the new life growing inside of her body, made the future seem only that much brighter. Being able to raise a family in a place where she never had to worry about the safety of their child was just icing on top of the cake.

After setting her multitude of bags on the black asphalt, she had just inserted her key into the lock on the trunk of her silver Dodge Charger when a familiar growl sounded throughout the parking lot. There was no need for her to turn and look; she knew who it was the moment that she heard the noise.

Shivers went up and down her spine as her whole body seemed to tense up all at once. She could feel hot breathing against her neck accompanied by a low growl with each and every breath that was taken by the figure standing directly behind her.

She tried to move, to run or do something but, try as she might, her legs simply would not allow her to do anything. It wasn't until a pair of hands landed on her shoulders and spun her around that she regained control of her body. All at once she went into fight-or-flight mode, opting for the latter after so many years spent running away from her problems.

Spinning around, her hair whipping through the wind like Tommy's used to, and without bothering to identify her target first, she delivered a fierce spin kick to the figure behind her. Her foot connected with heavy gold plated armor, sending her assailant staggering back a few feet.

"You again, Goldilocks?" Kimberly questioned sarcastically, rolling her eyes at her one-time nemesis. "You've got to be kidding me. Aren't you supposed to be like, space dust or something?"

"Fool! Clearly that is not the case!" Goldar the Titan roared, drawing his sword from its' sheath. He pointed it directly at Kimberly, stepping towards her as she backed up in the direction of her car. The moment her back hit the passenger side door, she knew that it had been a bad move on her part. She should have known better than that but years without fighting had rusted her skills somewhat. "My emperor and empress have ordered me to capture you and capture you I will!"

"Yeah right, Goldar," Kim muttered sarcastically, biting back her tongue so as not to stick it out at him and anger the Titan further. "Do you have any idea just how many times I've heard _that_ one before? What makes you think that this time will be any different than all the others?"

"As I recall, we never had any trouble capturing you in the past," Goldar snarled, inching ever closer towards Kimberly.

His words hit he hard for she knew that he was, unfortunately, right. Kimberly was not a weak fighter by any stretch of the imagination, that much was certain but she _had_ been quite susceptible to random kidnappings in her days as the Pink Ranger.

Slowly, she started sliding along the side of her car, trying to find a way out but Goldar continuously stayed in front of her, preventing her attempts at finding an exit.

_If only I still had my powers I could get out of here. Or at least give him a good fight. I don't stand a chance without my powers. I'm not even going to get to say good- _

Suddenly, Goldar sprang forward, surprising Kim and pinning her against the side of her car. His sword came up to her neck and she felt all the color drain out of her face. For the briefest of moments she thought about yelling for Tommy but then quickly remembered that he was back home in Reefside.

Looking around, she realized that the parking lot was almost completely empty outside of a few cars that were placed sparingly throughout the area. She was all alone with no one around to help her.

With a deep and sad sigh, she closed her eyes and prepared to accept her fate. Goldar had never seemed so overjoyed than when he drew back his sword and shot a beam of yellow energy at her, enveloping her entire body. In a blinding flash of light, they were both gone from the mall parking lot, leaving Kim's unlocked car and the bags filled with random baby items as the only evidence that she had been there.

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Back during the summer, five former Power Rangers along with the most current team, Operation Overdrive, had dealt the decisive blow in defeating an enemy named Thrax, the son of longtime Ranger enemies Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. It was a battle that had been both tough yet far too easy at the same time.

Thrax had shown up and completely severed the Overdrive team's connection to the universal Morphing Grid, relieving them of their Ranger Powers in the process. An ally of the Overdrive Rangers, the Sentinel Knight, recruited five veteran Rangers to aid the current, and then powerless, team against Thrax and they had succeeded in defeating him. Or at least, they thought that they had succeeded.

The way Thrax went down, three kicks courtesy of the Sentinel Knight, never sat well with the veteran Rangers, especially Tommy Oliver who had heard the stories about Thrax from two of his old teammates, Adam Park and Kira Ford. It just seemed fishy that, when he first presented himself, Thrax had appeared to be unbeatable only to be destroyed by a few simple kicks.

His long and storied tenure as a Power Ranger gave Tommy an insight that not many others who had donned the brightly colored spandex after him had. After hearing the stories from Adam and Kira, years spent fighting Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa made Tommy realize one thing; if Thrax was anything like his parents than there had to be some sort of a contingency plan in the works.

Ever since the mission to the Moon where Tommy and nine other Red Rangers had defeated the remains of the Machine Empire, there had been quarterly meetings between the group of ten. The meetings were nothing formal, just enough to keep everyone updated on what was happening throughout the country or, in the case of Leo Corbett and Aurico, Mirinoi and Aquitar respectively.

Eventually, when the Wild Force team hung up their Morphers for good and the Ninja Storm team had appeared in Blue Bay Harbor, Shane Clarke and Hunter Bradley, the Red Wind and Crimson Thunder Rangers respectively, started to attend the meetings. This set up a tradition of inviting every new Red Ranger to their gatherings until sixteen different Red Rangers had joined. Even Rocky DeSantos who had been living in Philadelphia with his now ex-girlfriend and was unreachable for the first Red Ranger mission, was in attendance for all of their quarterly get-togethers.

While the meetings were designed to be informal, no one was forced to attend, they were still extremely important to the safety of the planet and it was generally accepted that no one missed a meeting when the time for one came around. If it wasn't for the meetings, this particular one having taken place at the beginning of October, Tommy would have never heard from Andros that his theory about Thrax was true and that there was indeed a contingency plan.

Like Andros destroying Zordon's energy tube, the Sentinel Knight's destruction of Thrax had sent a shockwave of energy ripping throughout the entire galaxy. The only difference was that, where Zordon's sacrifice had destroyed the evil inside of Lord Zedd and Rita, turning them into humans, Thrax's destruction reversed their fates.

Evil like that could have only come from the offspring of such a despicably malevolent pair as Lord Zedd and Rita. Now, they were coming soon, headed for Earth and with only one thing on their minds.

Somewhere in the depths of space, a sinister looking craft was making its way through the star speckled blackness, quickly approaching the blue-green marble that, at one point, had seemed so very far away. The ship was as dark a black as you could imagine, with symbols representing each of the two-hundred planets, and still counting, that its occupants had captured etched into the cold metal.

Inside the ship, an equally evil sight was taking place. Two figures stood in the cockpit, staring out the window as Earth grew nearer. There was a coldness about them, an evil aura that stretched far beyond anything that Earth had seen in recent years.

Emperor Gruum? Please. That guy was nothing compared to them. Scorpius and Trakeena? Yeah, right. The two in the ship could have destroyed them with their bare hands. Divatox? Give me a break. That reject pirate in spandex couldn't hold a candle to the evil deeds that they had committed over the years.

The only one who had even come close in comparison to their own evil was Mesogog. He had done things to the Power Rangers, specifically Dr. Tommy Oliver, that were equally as wicked, if not worse than the things they had done. Mesogog, like them, had come so close to succeeding in destroying the Power Rangers and conquering Earth only to be upended by the disgusting, self-sacrificing nature of the greatest Power Ranger to ever live.

That blasted Green and White Ranger had been a thorn in their sides since the moment Jason Scott, Earth's first Red Ranger, had destroyed the Sword of Darkness and freed Tommy from Rita Repulsa's evil spell. Since then, they had done everything in their power to make his life a living hell, failing at almost every turn…except for one.

The petite little brunette currently being held down in the prison cells on the ship's lower deck made quite a nice addition to their cargo. She was the bait that they were going to use to lure Tommy to his death.

It was a brilliant plan if you really sat down and thought about it. Capture the thing that is most important to someone and watch how they crumble and mold perfectly into the palm of your hand. She was that thing to him and they knew it.

Kimberly Hart was Tommy's ultimate endgame, the one thing that he would always fight for, give up his life for if he knew that she was in danger and that it would help her. It was why he had kept pictures of them together in a photo album next to his bed for years before they got back together. It was why hearing certain songs made him cry at the most random of times, in the most random of places, and it was why Kira Ford, the only female Ranger on the Dino Thunder team, had been the Yellow Ranger and not the Pink Ranger. He couldn't bear the sight of pink on anyone else but Kimberly.

Years of hiding out on the Moon, watching the destruction of her relationship with Tommy had been like a miniature victory in its own right; to them at least. Having never been able to destroy Tommy like they wanted, seeing the one person that he loved more than anything break up with him had turned out to be a pretty damn good consolation prize for the sinister couple that had spent years trying to both ruin and end his life.

However, the two evil beings had also been around just in time to have seen the couple's recent reconciliation and even more recent engagement, along with Kimberly's announcement that she was carrying Tommy's baby. It made them sick. So sick, in fact, that the evil pair had agreed to turn back from the Kerovian system to pay Earth one final visit.

The moment that Tommy found out that they had captured Kimberly, they knew that there would be a flurry of resistance to greet them. They were prepared for that. Earth was not their ultimate prize anymore; if, when everything was done, they ended up with it somehow, the planet would have merely been another consolation prize.

This time, they wanted one thing and one thing only; the ending of Tommy Oliver's life; nothing more and nothing less. His destruction was going to be an amazing thing to watch happen for them and that little girl Kimberly Hart was the start of it all.

"It's going to work this time. We're going to get them, Zeddykins," Rita Repulsa cackled.

Zedd simply grunted and nodded his head at her. Being around Rita was something that he definitely didn't enjoy. He only tolerated her presence because he needed her skills in the realm of dark magic to aid him in his galactic conquests. Thankfully, those skills had been passed down to their son. If not, they wouldn't have even been alive.

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Standing behind the bar of a makeshift Tiki hut, cleaning a glass with a dish towel in his hand, Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier looked down at his oldest friend and shook his head, letting out a small chuckle as they prepared to close down for the evening. Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch was sitting on the other side of the bar, staring out over the top of his sunglasses at a Power Rangers chess board.

There they were, in the same position that they had been in a few years ago except on a much larger scale this time around. _Bulkmeier's _was no longer just a small, tropical themed restaurant in Angel Grove with a pool and a patio area, no. Now, it was much more than that.

In the past five years since opening the establishment, Bulk and Skull had practically turned the place into a full on resort. They had two pools now, one indoor and one outdoor, a small water park, a miniature golf course, a driving range, two dance clubs, batting cages, basketball courts and a huge gym complete with all the workout equipment that one could ever imagine. In fact, _Bulkmeier's_ hadexpanded so much that Angel Grove couldn't even handle the place any longer.

A year ago, _Bulkmeier's _had moved to Stone Canyon, a nearby town with a lot less people but quite a bit more space than Angel Grove had to offer. The Tiki hut, having been a part of their business from the start, had made the trip with them to Stone Canyon.

While Skull spent his typical five minutes contemplating his next move that Bulk would invariably conquer, Bulk continued cleaning the glasses. Even owning a resort that was brining in tens of millions of dollars a year, they still liked to be there, working on a daily basis. Sometimes that meant showing up in a suit and tie for a business meeting with investors. Other times that meant lounging around the pool area in Hawaiian shirts, flip-flops, and sunglasses, serving drinks and chatting with customers. Today had been one of those days.

"Skull," Bulk started, staring off into space. "Who do you think they really were?"

"Bulkie, we were there, remember? It was T.J. and his friends," Skull replied, moving his Rook. Bulk immediately took it with a Pawn, much to Skull's bewilderment. "How-how did you do that? That's not fair!"

"Sorry, Skull. Ya just gotta pay better attention, buddy," Bulk answered, patting him compassionately on the head. "And I'm not talking about the Space Rangers. I'm talking about the original team, the one that first made us want to discover their secret identities."

"Well, I can think of a few names," Skull mused, taking one of Bulk's pawns. Bulk made a move without thinking, not even realizing that he had just played right into Skull's plan. One mention of the Power Rangers' secret identities and playing chess with Bulk became like shooting fish in a barrel. "Billy Cranston, Kimberly Hart, Trini Kwan, Tommy Oliver, Jason Scott and Zack Taylor. In alphabetical order by last name, I might add."

"Skull, that is by far the _stupidest_ idea that I have ever heard and I've been a part of _a lot _of stupid ideas. There is no way that those guys were the Power Rangers," Bulk returned. He looked down to see Skull take his King, saw the sly grin on his friend's face and immediately recognized the trap. "You don't think it's them. You just set me up so you could win, didn't you?"

"Of course I did! What'd you expect, Bulkie!" Skull replied in his high-pitched squeal. Bulk started to form a retort when the phone rang. They looked at each other and both took off for the phone. "I'll get it!"

As they ran to the phone, Skull saw that he was on a collision course with Bulk and felt an instant sense of déjà vu. He could see five years earlier, flying into the pool when the call came for Tommy. Since they were nowhere near the pool, surrounded by nothing but concrete, he didn't want to risk a similar result.

In a moment of surprising intelligence, Skull came to a stop. Bulk saw this and did the same thing, ignoring the ringing of the telephone resting on the table a few feet away from them.

"You get it, Bulkie. I don't really wanna get it anyways," Skull muttered sheepishly. While Bulk basked in his sense of supremacy, Skull was looking for an opening and he had just found one. "Sike!"

Skull dropped into a squat and grabbed the waist of Bulk's pants, tugging them to down to his feet. He ran off to get the phone, leaving Bulk to stand their with his pants around his ankles and a look of surprise on his face.

"_Skullovitch's_, Skull speaking," Skull answered, annoyingly smacking the gum that he was chewing on.

"_I'm sorry. I must have the wrong number,_" a male answered. "_I'm looking for a place called _Bulkmeier's. _Do you know of it?_"

"Yeah, yeah, this is the place," Skull grumbled, angrily kicking at the pebble in front of him only to miss and stub his toe on a bigger rock. He muttered a few choice curse words as the man on the other end started talking about calling back another time. "No, no! This**is** _Bulkmeier's_! What can we do for you today, sir?"

Bulk looked at Skull in familiar fashion. It was the look he gave Skull every time he came close to messing up one of their plans back in high school. There were reasons why he didn't let him answer the phone, dammit!

"_I'm looking for…_" the man started, lowering his voice to a barely audible whisper as Skull's eyes went wide. He turned to look at Bulk with visible fear as the man kept talking. "_He told me that I could find him here. Do you know if he's there?_"

"I-uh, I-uh," Skull stammered. He wanted to find the words but he just couldn't do it no matter how hard he tried. Letting out a depressed sigh, he tossed the phone to Bulk. "He's looking for the boss."

Skull started back towards the Tiki hut, Bulk's eyes going wide when he heard that. It was nerve racking news indeed but he had already dealt with this once before. Looking over to the driving range, he pointed to a tall, muscular man swinging a golf club, told Skull to go get him, put the phone up to his ear and took a deep breath.

"This is Farkas Bulkmeier, owner of _Bulkmeier's_," Bulk told him, emphasis on the word owner. "My associate just left to retrieve your client and he'll be here in just a few short moments."

Years spent turning a small business into a multi-million dollar establishment had taught Bulk well when it was okay to be relaxed and when the utmost professionalism was needed. Knowing who this man was looking for, he assumed professionalism was in order so he laid it on quite thick.

In the five minutes it took Skull to walk to the driving range and retrieve the man whose presence Bulk had requested, Bulk did something he didn't usually do; think. He thought long and hard about a lot of things that had happened in his life; things that, starting with high school, seemed more than just a little bit coincidental.

When Skull finally returned with a man about six-feet tall with spiked brown hair and deep brown eyes, Bulk had come to a realization. It was with great admiration and respect visible in his eyes that he handed off the phone to the man. He took it and thanked Bulk politely before stepping away into a more private area.

"Hello," he started, leaning against the side of the Tiki hut.

"_Tommy, it's Andros. Something…_"the Kerovian started only to pause, unable to finish. Tommy heard him take a few deep breaths and felt his heart drop. A sudden surge had ran through his body that made him feel as if something terrible had happened. "_Tommy, I don't know how to tell you this, but something terrible has happened._"

"What happened, Andros?" Tommy asked in a voice somewhere between leader-like and monotone.

At the name Andros, Bulk and Skull exchanged sideways glances. The identities of the Space Rangers was public knowledge. Hearing Tommy speak that name confirmed Bulk's recent suspicions that Tommy had indeed been a Power Ranger. The portly proprietor of the successful resort nodded at Skull, confirming it for him as well.

From a safe distance, they observed Tommy with curiosity, watching as his emotions fluctuated from angry and enraged to fearful and panicked. Every ounce of color left his face as he hit the power button and dropped the phone onto the concrete. Without warning, he dropped to his knees and started to dry heave right there on the ground.

"Tommy!" Bulk called out, he and Skull rushing to his side. In an act of compassion that was rarely seen from either of them, they both lowered themselves to his level as Bulk placed a hand on his back. "Tommy, what's going on man?"

"K-K-Kimberly," he managed to sputter in between heaves. Eyes widened as Bulk and Skull looked back and forth between each other and the longest serving Power Ranger in history. "She-she's gone."

"Gone?" Skull queried, raising his eyebrows. "You mean like dead?"

"Shut up you idiot," Bulk chastised, glaring angrily at his business partner. Skull immediately looked embarrassed as Tommy began to push himself off the ground and onto his feet.

Tommy looked at Skull and his eyes opened up in a way that reminded the pair of one of their first encounters with the man, in the alley behind Angel Grove High. A flurry of rage started to build inside Tommy's body as he stared daggers at the skinny ex-bully. When he finally blinked, something no one ever expected to see again happened.

Tommy's eyes suddenly flashed but it was not green like their meeting in the ally. This time it was a deep shade of crimson. He shrugged their hands off his shoulders and started walking towards the parking lot without a word, leaving his bag of golf clubs by the driving range as he extracted his cell phone from his pocket.

His brisk walk turned into a full on sprint as he dialed his best friend's number and brought the phone up to his ear. He was halfway into his Jeep when Jason picked up on the other end of the line.

"_Talk to me, baby,_" Jason laughed, knowing that it was Tommy. When no words came from the other end, the original Red Ranger immediately sensed that something was out of order with his friend. "_You there, bro?_" He waited a few seconds and got nothing until the sound of muffled sobs reached his ears. "_Tommy, what's going on man?_"

"J-Jay-Jason," Tommy tried through tears. His voice cracked and Jason instantly knew that something had happened with Kimberly. "Z-Zedd…R-Rita…Kim…she's gone."

"_Gone!?_"Jason roared. The surprise and anger was evident in his voice. "_What the hell do you mean, she's gone?_"

"Andros just called me," Tommy sputtered, trying desperately to levy his emotions. "He said Goldar captured Kim at the mall. All they found was her car and a bunch of stuff for the baby."

"_Baby? What baby?_"Jason asked. There had been no mention of a baby since Christmas. Truth be told, neither Tommy or Kimberly had had time enough to tell anyone but their immediate families. "_Tommy! What baby!?_"

"My baby! Our baby!" Tommy yelled, beating his hands against the steering wheel. "Dammit, Jason! Kimberly's pregnant with our baby and they got her! What am I going to do!?"

This was all news to Jason and it took a few moments for everything to register with him before he could come up with something to say to Tommy. He took a deep breath before answering the question.

"_The same thing we always do when things like this happen, bro,_" Jason muttered. "_We gotta round up the cavalry and give them all hell._"

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Alone in her cell, Kimberly shivered at the general coldness offered by Zedd and Rita's space craft. The only thing going through her mind was fear; fear for both herself and for Tommy but more importantly for their unborn child.

Finding out that she was pregnant with Tommy's baby had been a feeling unlike anything Kimberly had ever experienced before. Not even Morphing gave her the rush of excitement she got when thinking about the baby. He or she, whatever it turned out to be, was now the most important thing in her life outside of her new fiancée.

More than anything in the world right now, she wanted to be at home in Angel Grove, curled up on the couch under a blanket with Tommy holding her, stroking her hair while whispering sweet nothings into her ear. She yearned for his touch, to feel him gently tracing his fingers along her arms, sending shivers up and down her spine in a way that only Tommy could.

But with every hour that she spent in Zedd and Rita's captivity, her confidence in being rescued started to fade away. She wanted to believe that Tommy would come crashing in at any moment, ever her White Knight. But the odds that Tommy even knew where she was were astronomical.

She knew he'd be worried when she didn't answer her cell phone, unfortunately The Network didn't extend to the depths of outer space, but how would he even know where to look? It wasn't like she left a note telling him where she'd be.

"I'm so sorry, Tommy," she muttered, curling herself into a ball. "I really thought we were going to have our happily ever after this time. After everything we've been through I truly believed that we deserved it. I guess I was wrong."

"Fear not, Kimberly," a voice came from outside her cell. She raised her eyes and found herself staring at Finster, one of Rita's oldest minions. "I despise what Lord Zedd and Rita have done to you and Tommy but do not be afraid. True love will always survive."

With that, he continued on his way into the darkness, leaving Kimberly alone to ponder the few words of comfort he had offered to her. Coming from one of Rita's henchmen, his words shouldn't have meant much to her but, surprisingly, they did. Hearing it from Finster gave her a little beacon of hope that Tommy was out there trying to find a way to rescue her.

_I've been gone less than a day and I bet he's looking all over for me. He's probably running Jason and the others ragged, too. Tommy loves me. There's no way he won't come to rescue me._

And she believed it, too. She had hope, something to hold onto. There were no more shivers, no more doubt in her mind. It was no longer a matter of _if_ Tommy came but _when_ he came and _who_ he brought with him when he did.

Tommy was out there and come Hell or high water, he was going to find her. There was nothing more to it than that.

Looking out the small window into the darkness of space, a shooting star passed by in the distance and she allowed a small smile to creep across her face. Tommy was coming and when he arrived, Zedd and Rita were going to have Hell to pay.

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Like Jason suggested, rounding up the cavalry was what they did. All across the country and into the outer reaches of space, the call went out that an emergency Red Ranger meeting was in order. Jason, Rocky and Conner were all at Tommy's house in Reefside within a few hours after Tommy had gotten the news from Andros.

While Tommy's three former teammates did their best to offer some sort of comfort, there was nothing any of them could say or do to make him feel better. Long into the night, after Jason, Rocky and Conner had passed out in various places throughout Tommy's house, he was still awake. He wouldn't rest until Kimberly was back home, safe and in his arms.

For hours on end he paced back and forth between the basement and the main area of the house until finally he could take it no longer. Some time between five and six a.m. Tommy had fallen asleep leaning against his kitchen counter. A little more than an hour of uncomfortable sleep was all he managed before the sound of his doorbell snapped him wide awake.

Running through the house to get the door, Tommy nearly tripped over the sleeping lump of Rocky who was out cold on his living room floor. He must have looked rather ragged because both Eric Myers, the Quantum Ranger, and Wesley Collins, the Red Time Force Ranger, had to suppress chuckles at his disheveled appearance.

"Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Eric commented from the front porch.

Tommy thought about firing back with something to display how serious this meeting was but decided that he was too tired and that it was too early for him to get mad. He just stepped back and allowed Eric and Wes entrance into his home before moving to shut the door behind them. The sight of a red Corvette made him stop, though.

Looking down his driveway at the sports car, Tommy gave an appreciative nod to his successor of the Red Turbo powers as Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson, better known as T.J., stepped out of the vehicle. Tommy was surprised but relieved when he saw Carter Grayson, the Red Lightspeed Ranger, exit from the passenger side and join T.J. on the walk up the gravel driveway to his front door.

"Thanks for coming guys," Tommy muttered, yawning as he vigorously tried to wipe the sleep out of his eyes. He shook hands with both men as he let them into the house. "It means a lot to me that you came."

"We get call. We come. We fight," T.J. grunted ala Tarzan.

Regardless of the depression he was feeling inside, it was hard not to at least give a small chuckle towards T.J.'s attempt at levity. Tommy did just that and, surprisingly, he felt a little bit relieved when he allowed the tiny laugh to escape from his lips.

"Looks like someone's feeling a little better," Rocky interjected, rolling onto his back only to Kip-up onto his feet. Still a bit drowsy, he staggered over to the four newly arrived Rangers to shake hands. "Good to see you all, fellas. Just wish it was under better circumstances."

"That's about what I gathered from Andros' message when he told us to meet here," Carter replied, gripping Rocky's hand tightly. "What seems to be the problem?"

"You mean Tommy didn't tell you already?" a voice came from above them.

Everyone turned to see Jason walking down the stairs towards the group with an extremely groggy Conner just a few short steps behind him. Like Rocky and Tommy before him, both Jason and Conner exchanged greetings and handshakes with the other Reds.

"So what's really going on here, Tommy?" Wes asked, eyeing the Red Zeo Ranger cautiously. The usually calm Tommy was fidgeting back and forth. It was obvious by his demeanor that something was troubling him greatly. "Andros' call sounded pretty urgent."

"It is," Tommy replied, exhaling loudly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "But I don't want to tell the story more than once. Actually, I don't even think I can. Once everyone is here we'll go down to the basement and talk. For now, just make yourselves at home."

Tommy gave Rocky a look which the second Red Ranger took as his cue to take the others, sans Jason, as far away from Tommy as possible. He directed Carter, Conner, Eric, T.J., and Wes to the kitchen, leaving Tommy to brood in the company of the only male he didn't call dad or Zordon that truly understood him.

"Why me, bro? Why does this shit always have to happen to me?" Tommy asked in a murmur, tears threatening once again. "It's like they pick on me for no reason other than to fuck with me."

"That's not all it is, man, and you know that. They go after you because, without you, there's nothing," Jason answered, moving to sit on the couch next to Tommy. He placed his hand on Tommy's shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze. "You've saved the world more than any of us. You've done things the rest of us couldn't even dream of. You've built Morphers and mentored your own team of Rangers. Unlike us, your duty didn't end when you passed on your powers to the next person. You're a Ranger through-and-through. Always have been, always will be. It's part of who you are."

"I know and that's the problem," Tommy muttered, nervously playing with his hands. "I'm sick of always being the one everyone turns to when something happens. I hate that I have to be the one to organize everything when there are almost a hundred other Rangers out there who are just as capable as me."

"Just as capable? Tommy, that's bullshit and you know it," Jason replied. "There is no Ranger out there more capable than you. You have done _everything_. I can't stress that enough to you. This house, this city, this world, none of it would be here if it wasn't for you. You're the one connection all of us have to the teams that came before and after our own teams. If it wasn't for you leading us, Venjixx would have gotten Serpentera and we'd all be dead. So put your damn chin up and do what you're destined to do. Lead this mismatched group of crazy ass Red Rangers and get your goddamn girlfriend back."

"Fiancée," Tommy corrected. Jason opened his mouth to reply but Tommy put up his hand to stop him and he fell silent. Tommy had to pause for a moment before continuing. He hadn't expected the hand to have the same effect on Jason that it had on his younger protégés. "I asked her right after you and Kat left on Christmas night. That's when I found out she was pregnant."

Jason gave Tommy a sympathetic look along with another tight shoulder squeeze. While he hadn't been in Tommy's exact position before, he knew what it felt like to feel like he was going to lose everything important to him. Dealing with that was as much a part of being a Power Ranger as fighting crazy monsters and saving the world.

When the doorbell rang again, Tommy was off the couch and at the door almost before Jason could even blink his eyes. Tommy practically yanked the door off the hinges as Jason turned his attention to the door and saw Shane Clarke, the Red Wind Ranger, standing there with Hunter Bradley, the Crimson Thunder Ranger.

"The others are in the kitchen," Tommy murmured, quickly shaking hands. "Once everyone's here we're gonna meet down in the basement. I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but until then, just go."

Shane and Hunter both seemed taken aback but the look that Jason gave them told them to just go along with it and not ask questions. The pair just nodded their heads and drifted towards the kitchen, leaving Tommy and Jason alone once more.

In the next hour and a half that followed, the rest of the Red Rangers arrived either alone or in pairs and all of them, after being greeted by Tommy and Jason, were immediately directed to the kitchen. After Shane and Hunter arrived, Nick Russell showed up alone, followed by Leo Corbett from Mirinoi who was accompanied by Aurico from Aquitar. Bridge Carson came next and, aside from Andros, Cole Evans was the last to arrive.

"Way to be the last one here, Rookie," Jason teased. Though Cole was no longer a rookie like he had been for the first Red Ranger mission, the nickname still stuck. Considering Jason never referred to any of the newer Rangers as "Rookie," Cole took it more as a compliment than a dig.

Andros teleported into Tommy's basement from the Megaship just as the fifteen of them were making their way down the steps into the Command Center. The Red Space Ranger wore a somber expression on his face when his eyes met Tommy. Though they had never fought together outside of the Moon mission, Tommy and Andros embraced each other like old friends.

Having almost lost his sister Karone, Andros fully understood what Tommy was going through better than anyone in the room, probably even Jason. When they broke the hug, Tommy made sure that everyone was seated before addressing the group. He stood tall in the center of the half-circle that they had formed around him, his exterior displaying that of a calm and collected leader though his insides trembled with both fear and curiosity for the fate of Kimberly and their unborn child.

"First off, before we go any further and I tell you what happened, I want to do two things. To start, I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for coming today. It means more to me than you'll ever know," Tommy started, eyeing his brothers in Red. They remained silent but nodded their heads in confirmation and understanding. "Secondly, I'm going to give you all a choice, just like I did before. I can't make you go with me so if you don't want to fight, now is the time to leave."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not going anywhere," Cole answered, turning to look at everyone just as Tommy had done before turning his attention to Tommy. "Just like you said before, I'll say it again; I will go wherever I must to protect the Earth."

Tommy sighed. "I appreciate the sentiment Cole, but this time it's not the Earth that's in danger. At least, Andros and I don't think that it is."

"What do you mean, Tommy?" Nick piped up, addressing Tommy for the first time since greeting each other at the door. "Why would you have called us if Earth wasn't in danger."

Tears filled Tommy's eyes before he could reply. No one in the room but Jason and Rocky had ever seen him look so distraught. When the first tear slipped down his cheek, they all realized that whatever was happening was something that rang far deeper with Tommy than just defending the Earth from evil.

With shaking hands, he moved to one of the many computers held in the Command Center and turned one on, bringing up a picture of the original six Rangers in uniform but helmetless. He pointed to the one in pink and felt an intense pain in his heart.

"This woman you see is Kimberly Hart. She was Earth's first Pink Ranger. She's also my fiancée," Tommy explained. Eyes went wide at the notion that something had happened to an inactive Ranger as he used the sleeve of his red hooded sweatshirt to wipe the tears away. He hadn't worn red since the last Red Ranger mission but now that they were all together again, it just felt right to throw on his old color. "Yesterday night right around ten o'clockm Goldar, one of Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa's generals, kidnapped her in the parking lot of the Angel Grove Mall. I called you all here because…God, I'm going to sound like such a selfish prick…"

Tommy's voice trailed off and Jason took that as an opportunity to speak on the behalf of his brother in everything but blood. He got up from his seat and stood firmly by Tommy's side, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Kimberly is a huge part of the legacy the original Power Rangers built. She's been in more fights than everyone in this room but Tommy, including myself and Rocky," Jason elaborated. "Like Tommy said, Goldar captured her last night. You're all here because it's going to take all of us to get her back."

"Jason, I don't understand," Hunter interjected, looking to his old teammate Shane for answers that the Red Wind Ranger didn't have. "I thought when Andros destroyed Zordon's energy tube that it wiped out all the evil that existed on Earth."

Andros stood up now and moved to stand next to Tommy on the side opposite of Jason. He too placed a hand on Tommy's shoulder before addressing the group.

"It did. Unfortunately, things don't always work out the way we think they will," Andros started to explain. "When Thrax arrived on Earth, he placed one of Rita's spells on himself. After the Sentinel Knight defeated him, his evil energy rippled throughout the galaxy and the evil inside of Zedd and Rita resurfaced."

"Okay, that explains Zedd and Rita, I guess," Shane replied. "But if that's the case, why didn't this release of evil energy restore the bad guys we," he gestured to the Rangers that came after Zordon's sacrifice "come back too? Shouldn't Lothor and Mesogog and Gruum and Ransik and everyone else be back with them?"

"That's what I thought too. Truthfully, when I heard what happened, I feared my sister would be turned back into Astronema again," Andros answered. He felt selfish for worrying about Karone when Kimberly's life was at stake but when he offered an apology to Tommy, the Red Zeo Ranger would have none of it so he continued to speak. "Apparently, the spell was only designed to resurrect those in his immediate family. Goldar is here strictly by Rita and Zedd's doing, not Thrax's spell."

"So basically what you're saying is that your fiancée has been kidnapped and you want our help in getting her back?" Leo asked. Tommy simply looked at the Red Galaxy Ranger and nodded his head slowly. "Okay, I'm in."

"R-really?" Tommy sputtered, almost in disbelief.

"Definitely. We're Rangers, Tommy. Helping people is what we do," Leo replied. Through tears, Tommy smiled brightly back at Leo who got up from his seat to stand by Tommy. "Besides, I'd like to think that you would all be there to help me if anything were ever to happen to Kendrix."

"That's me, Andros, Tommy, Rocky, and Leo that are in so far," Jason started, directing his gaze to the remaining members of the group. "What about the rest of you? Can we count on you to help, too?"

"Yeah. Count me in," Eric answered, getting up to stand with Tommy as well. He and Leo could have confirmed their involvement from their seats, but standing with Tommy in his time of strife was the ultimate show of support. "I know you'd help if it was Taylor in Kimberly's shoes."

"Absolutely, man. Thank you so much," Tommy murmured, embracing Eric tightly then turning to look at the others. "What about you guys? Conner?"

"Do you even have to ask, Dr. O? You've done more for me than anyone else in my life, even my parents. And like these guys, I know you'd be there if something happened to Kira" Conner answered, hands on his knees as he pushed himself out of his chair and onto his feet. "I couldn't say no to you even if I wanted to. I'll fight. With Triassic Power, those 90's rejects don't stand a chance."

Tommy chuckled and hugged his most prized charge tightly. Though Tommy loved and appreciated all of the Dino Rangers, they had all evolved and matured right in front of his eyes, none had had more of an effect on him than Conner. He had gone from a cocky teenager with no confidence in leading a team of Power Rangers to a mature young adult who carried himself with poise, putting the needs of the world in front of himself and his own dreams and aspirations when all he wanted was to be a normal kid.

In a nutshell, Conner reminded Tommy of himself when he had been a teenaged Power Ranger, struggling with balancing duty and wanting to have a normal life. Both had started out unsure of themselves and both had become not only tremendous leaders and Rangers, but outstanding people as well.

"I'm in too," Wes spoke up, following the others to stand near Tommy. "I don't know what I'd do if it was Jen, but I do know that you would do anything you could to help me get her back. I'm here for you, for Kimberly."

"As am I, Tommy," Aurico added. Aurico's voice sounded less like a Ninja Turtle and more like it had when they first met, as if he was gurgling water while speaking. How that had happened, Tommy wasn't sure but it was unimportant. "Delphine is all that I have ever desired. I take solace in knowing you would aid me should I ever need it."

Tommy nodded and gave both Wes and Aurico quick hugs as, slowly but surely, every Ranger agreed to fight and stood firmly next to Tommy. Each one cited their own significant others as a reason for fighting but truthfully, Tommy heard no explanations, only confirmations.

"Umm, can I ask a question, Tommy?" Bridge queried after everyone had agreed to fight. Tommy looked to the eccentric Red S.P.D. Ranger and nodded his head. "From what I've heard of the first Red Ranger mission, the Machine Empire had a base on the Moon where you guys went to fight. Where exactly are we going?"

"That's a good question, Bridge. Unfortunately, it's one I don't have the answer to," Tommy replied with a deflated shoulder shrug then looked to Andros. "You're the one who found out and you're the one with all the space knowledge. Maybe you should answer that question."

Andros nodded. "Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure either. From the Megaship, I've been able to track the vessel Lord Zedd and Rita are approaching Earth in. I think if we get the Megaship close enough, we should be able to teleport ourselves in but someone would have to stay in the ship to make sure that we can teleport back in."

"I'll do it," Rocky volunteered. "Jason is the real Red Ranger between the two of us. Besides, he's known Kimberly longer than all of us, even Tommy. He should be there for the fight."

"No way, man. I mean, I want to be there but not at your expense," Jason replied, shaking his head back and forth. "You didn't get to fight the first time. I'll stay behind."

Tommy was floored not only by the willingness of everyone to help but by the self-sacrificing nature in which they went about it. Looking between Rocky and Jason, there were no words he could come up with to express his gratitude. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

"No. Neither of you will do it," a new voice came from the top of the stairs. Sixteen heads all turned at once to see Mackenzie "Mack" Hartford, Operation Overdrive's Red Ranger walking towards them. Everyone looked at him in surprise and he laughed lightheartedly. "You guys weren't gonna do this without the newest Red Ranger, were you?"

"Bastard. He stole my late entrance _and _butchered my lines," Jason muttered under his breath. Tommy couldn't help laughing at that and he playfully slapped Jason on the shoulder. "Bastard," he repeated once more for good measure than shook hands with Mack. "Good to see you, man."

"You too, Jason," Mack replied. He hadn't heard Jason's comment but even if he had, there would have been no issues between them.

"Well look what the cat dragged in," Eric laughed, moving to shake hands with Mack. "If it isn't Pinocchio himself. You didn't bring Geppetto or that stupid talking cat, did you?"

"Pinocchio?" Mack questioned. "I don't get it."

Technically, though Mack looked to be in his late teens or early twenties, he was really just about three Earth years old. It wasn't until his tenure with the Overdrive team was coming to an end that he discovered he wasn't a human being but an android. In the end, he had been turned into a human thanks to the Sentinel Knight and the Corona Aurora but in his few short years on Earth, he hadn't been exposed to the wonders of old Disney cartoons just yet.

"Forget about it, Mack. Just ignore Eric," Wes laughed, offering his hand to Mack. "He's got a cynical side based solely on childhood shortcomings and his need to make himself seem edgy and cool."

"Can it, Collins," Eric interjected, trying to remain serious though he ended up laughing just the same. Mack now turned to address Tommy with a need to help littered across his face.

"I know I don't have the experience that all you have," Mack started, motioning towards the sixteen veterans standing around him "but I'd still like to help. I'll stay on the ship and make sure everyone can get back safely."

Tommy nodded. "Thank you, Mack. I appreciate it. We all do," Tommy answered, moving to direct his attention to the whole group. "I can't thank you all enough for this. Words will never be able to do justice to how grateful I am to have such an amazing group of friends fighting by my side."

It was the first time throughout all of their many meetings together that Tommy had addressed the entire lot of them as "friends" and not just fellow "Rangers." The use of the word "friends" said everything to the sixteen other Red Rangers that Tommy physically couldn't. It was a sign that even though they all hadn't served on the same team, the bond that they all shared was one that ran far deeper than their duties as Rangers.

"Wait," Nick spoke up suddenly. "If we have to have Mack teleport us from Zedd and Rita's ship back to the Megaship, how are we even supposed to get to the Megaship now?"

"With this," Andros replied, reaching into the inner pocket on his jacket. He pulled out a small device that looked like an electronic clicker to lock and unlock a car. After showing it to the other Rangers, he pushed the only button on it.

"What now?" Hunter asked.

"Now," Andros answered "we wait."

"For what?" Wes questioned.

"The Megaship."

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Kimberly heard the clicking sound of fingers snapping and the bars on her cell door were gone, evaporated into thin air. She got up from the cold metal bench, the only thing in the cell besides herself, and thought about making a run for it. A dozen or so Putties followed closely behind by Goldar instantly made her rethink that strategy.

"What do you want with me, Goldar?" Kimberly hissed, staring daggers at Lord Zedd and Rita's longest serving general.

"Only what my emperor and empress desire, little Kimmie. The destruction of that pathetic human you care so much about!" Goldar growled loudly, letting go a maniacal laugh that made Kimberly cringe. "Putties, seize her!"

Her thoughts went to Tommy as the Putties closed the gap between themselves and her, their clay hands going around her body. She felt herself being hoisted high into the air as they started to carry her out of the prison cell.

"Let me go you clay freaks!" Kimberly screeched, trying desperately to break free of their grip on her. She moved her body back and forth but the hold of a dozen Putties was too much even for a former Power Ranger to break. "Come on, Goldar! Why don't you man up and fight me yourself!?"

"Haha, I don't need to fight you, Kimberly! Your death would be pointless now," Goldar roared, following the Putties down the dark hallway. "Lord Zedd and Rita want you alive to see your precious Tommy meet his end!"

"You don't know what you've gotten yourself into, Goldie," Kimberly muttered bitterly. "Tommy's going to come with more firepower than you could ever imagine. You _will _die today, Goldar."

"You are foolish, human! No one will be able to stop Lord Zedd and Rita now!" Goldar replied. They reached a set of double doors and Goldar called for the Putties to stop. "Would you like to see the place where Tommy is going to die, Kimberly!?"

Images of Tommy dying brutally at the hands of Zedd and Rita flooded her brain as Goldar slowly pushed the doors open. The Putties tossed her in and she landed with a crash on the hard floor.

"See you soon, Kimmie," Goldar laughed, waving goodbye as the Putties slammed the door shut behind her.

After being flung to the ground, Kimberly jumped back on the seat of her pants at the sound of the doors being closed in such an aggressive fashion. Tears filled her eyes as she pulled herself into a standing position.

"You didn't have to slam it, you know!" she yelled, laughing and crying at the same time. "God, I must be losing my mind. I'm going crazy, I know it. Next stop on the Kimberly-Is-Crazy-Train, the loony bin! Now I know what Ozzy Osbourne meant in that song."

A few minutes passed before Kimberly regained enough of her composure to do something of an observational walkthrough of the room Goldar had described as the place Tommy would die. What she found surprised the holy Hell out of her.

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Standing together in Tommy's backyard, those who had never seen the Astro Megaship _Mark II_, once described by Andros as the fastest space ship in the galaxy, marveled at both the size and beauty of the vessel. It really _was _just like something out of a movie.

"Umm, question again?" Bridge asked, raising his hand this time.

"Go ahead, Bridge," Tommy answered but continued speaking before Bridge could reply. "And don't ask if you can ask a question every time you have a question. Asking if you can ask a question kind of defeats the purpose of having a question in the first place."

"Are you always so long winded, Tommy?" Bridge questioned. Tommy's mouth dropped open as Bridge let out a soft laugh. Oh, the irony. "Just kidding. My question, err, my _real_ question is, aren't the neighbors going to think a big space ship flying into your backyard is just a little bit on the weird side? Not that there's anything wrong with weird. I mean, I'm kinda weird but still…"

Bridge's voice trailed off as Jason smacked himself in the forehead, shaking his head back and forth at the same time. S.P.D.'s third Red Ranger never ceased to surprise him, or any of them for that matter. That much was obvious by the looks of disbelief and confusion on everyone's faces, along with quite a few half-smiles and eye rolls as well.

Under normal circumstances, being around a bunch of younger people like this would make Jason feel old but it was times like these when he was thankful that he had been around the block more than a few times. His experience made him realize that, when it came to how things were done in the Ranger world, answers to questions asked, more often that not, only lead to more questions.

Luckily, Tommy and Andros had much more patience than he did when it came to answering questions from the younger Rangers. Tommy calmly told Bridge that he didn't have any neighbors and Andros explained that the Megaship came with a cloaking device, making it invisible to anyone without a connection to the Morphing Grid. Thank God for those two or Jason might have throttled someone by now!

All throughout their meeting in Tommy's basement, Jason gritted his teeth when the newer Rangers piped up with a seemingly never ending supply of questions. Ninety-nine percent of the time, when something like this happened, someone would eventually explain everything to them. If they didn't, than the question obviously wasn't that important in the first place. At least, that's how Jason saw it.

The only time Jason remembered hearing so many questions was when he, Zack, Billy, Kimberly and Trini had first gotten their powers. He had had a slew of questions for the floating head in a tube he would grow to look at as a second father but he had also trusted Zordon's knowledge that things would be explained when the time came.

These young kids just didn't understand how easily they had it. Well, as easily as it could be for a Power Ranger. Every one of them but him, even Tommy, had someone that came before them that they could get their answers from without verbally asking questions. All that it took was for them to believe in the Power, knowing that it had never, and would never, steer a Ranger in the wrong direction.

"Man I wish Zordon was still here," Jason muttered quietly so that only Tommy and Rocky could hear him. Tommy and Rocky both silently nodded their heads in agreement with him. Zordon had been gone for almost ten years but that didn't mean that his Rangers missed him any less.

At the opposite end of Tommy's backyard, a few Rangers from the newer generations were having a conversation of their own. Shane, Hunter and Nick all stood near a large oak tree, discussing the mission at hand.

"So what do you guys think about all of this?" Shane asked.

Hunter shrugged. "I'm not sure, man. It just seems like too much has to happen perfectly for us to get her back. It's like, even if we get on Zedd's ship, what do we do from there, you know? Do we just barge in and tear the place up or do we go in all stealthy and stuff and try to get her back quietly?"

"I don't know, Hunter," Nick replied, slowly shaking his head. "I don't think Tommy or Andros would ask us to do something they didn't think we could do. It took a lot of guts for Tommy to ask us to help. And after what he's done as a Power Ranger, I really don't want to fail and disappoint him."

"Failing won't disappoint him but not trying will," a fourth voice interjected. Hunter, Nick and Shane all turned around to see Conner standing behind them. "Dr. O doesn't expect perfection. Hell, he doesn't even expect us to do anything other than our best. As long as we do that, than we should have no regrets."

"No regrets," Shane echoed, extending his arm out with a closed fist. "We do this and we do this right, dammit! For Tommy."

"For Tommy," Hunter murmured, touching his fist to Shane's.

"For Tommy," Nick supplied, he too adding his fist to the group.

"No. Not just for Dr. O," Conner continued, the last to join. With the confidence of a supreme leader, he too added his fist, connecting the four of them. "This is for him, for Kimberly and for everyone that ever came before us. Their legacy is why we are all standing here today. This is for them."

When the group of four broke fists and they started to walk back towards the main group, Jason looked at Conner, beaming at the young man with quiet admiration. He didn't need to hear their conversation, he could tell just by observing their movements that Conner had said whatever needed to be said to inject some much needed confidence into the newer generation of Rangers.

_Tommy had one hell of a Red Ranger. The kid definitely knows what he's doing,_ Jason silently mused, watching them until they came to a stop next to Andros and T.J. Then, with somber eyes, he turned to Tommy and laid a hand on his shoulder. "We should probably get going, bro. We wouldn't want to keep our little pink princess waiting, would we? You know how she gets when you're late."

"Jason, if we get her back, I'm never going to be late for anything ever again," Tommy muttered, almost in a whisper. Jason just nodded as Tommy walked towards the boarding ramp of the Megaship and stood tall to address the group. "This is it, guys. This is your last chance to turn around and walk away. Once you get on that ship, you're in it until the end."

Hunter, Nick and Shane were the first three to step forward, surprising not only Tommy but Jason and most of the others as well. Each one walked past him, saying nothing as they walked up the ramp, only pausing momentarily to pat Tommy gently on the shoulder.

After that, each and every Ranger followed the Ninja Storm and Mystic Force Reds up the ramp and onto the ship, offering Tommy the same silent gesture until it was just he, Jason and Rocky left outside. Tommy ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath.

"You two," Tommy half-chuckled, shaking his head with eyes on the ground. Slowly, he raised his head to look at them. "You two have been there for me through thick and thin. Whatever happens up there, I want you both to know…" he rubbed the back of his neck absentmindedly. "You're my brothers. I love you both."

"Tommy, the only thing that's going to happen is that we're going to go up there, kick the crap out of Zedd and Rita, and get Kimberly back," Rocky supplied with confidence in his friends and the other Rangers.

"Rocky's right, man. We will get her back," Jason added. Tommy nodded his head but it was clear that he was doubtful of their ability to rescue Kimberly and get her back safely. "Tommy, we _will_ save her. There's nothing to it other than that."

"Thank you. I just can't say that enough, guys," Tommy murmured, Jason and Rocky nodding their heads towards him. "It's time, fellas. Let's do this."

As they started to board the Megaship, Tommy felt something burning inside of him, like a fire trying to erupt from his body. For reasons he couldn't explain, he felt stronger than he ever had before, including the times when he got new powers. The moment his feet touched the base of the boarding ramp and he started to walk onto the ship, this new feeling building up inside of him told him that Kimberly was indeed going to make it out of there alive.

Now, it was just a matter of getting there.

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With Lord Zedd and Rita's ship growing closer to Earth, the Megaship streaked through space at blazing speeds to intercept it. Instead of sitting in the briefing room like they had done before, the Rangers stood in the control room with Andros, Aurico and T.J. at the controls. Having little to no knowledge of space travel, the others simply congregated throughout the control room with the ones they were closest to.

Tommy, Jason, Rocky and Conner had set up shop in a corner of the room away from everyone else and were talking quietly amongst themselves. Nick, Hunter, and Shane, had found their own corner and had adopted Mack and Bridge into their little circle as well. The Silver Guardians, Wes and Eric, were together, seated at a small table on the main floor leaving Carter, Leo, and Cole on their own.

"DECA!" Andros called out, punching away at a larger-than-life keyboard. "Give us some coordinates! How far away are we from Zedd and Rita's ship!?"

_Andros, the current distance between the two ships is approximately fifteen parsecs and closing. Time until the Megaship is within teleportation range is eighteen minutes and forty-seven seconds._

Fifteen parsecs, the equivalent to almost forty-nine light years, was a distance that, in any other space craft, would have taken them exponentially longer to close than the almost-nineteen-minute estimate that DECA had given them. That's why they weren't flying in any other space craft. Andros hadn't been exaggerating when he had said that the _Mark II_ was the fastest space shuttle in the galaxy.

"Alright guys, we're getting close. Let's head down to the briefing room," Andros called out to the group. "DECA, engage autopilot mode. I want a five minute heads-up before we're within range to teleport."

DECA, the Megaship's onboard computer, confirmed Andros' request as the seventeen Red Rangers joined back up to make their way to the briefing room. They walked in silence until they reached the large round table, seven more chairs having been added around it since the last time the group had been there.

While the others took the seats designated to them via their respective team logos, Tommy and Andros stayed standing around the table's perimeter. Andros leaned across the table and gently tapped the center point on a small circle carved into the middle of the table. A hole in the table opened up and a projection of Zedd and Rita's ship came into view.

"This is Zedd and Rita's ship," Tommy explained, most of the group staring in awe at the ship that was bigger than anything they had ever seen before, including the Megaship. "Kimberly's in there somewhere. It's just a matter of where exactly she is."

"I had DECA run some scans on their ship," Andros added. This news came as a surprise to Tommy. "The tests aren't a hundred-percent accurate but DECA detected only one human life force inside. From the most recent scan, it seems as if the life force is coming from the bottommost level of the ship."

"Kimberly," Jason murmured softly, looking to Tommy and Andros who just nodded their heads in quiet confirmation. "So what's the plan here, guys? We can't just go in there with all guns a-blazing like we did on the Moon."

"Why not?" Hunter questioned.

Jason had to bite his tongue for a moment before answering. "The Machine Empire was strong but Zedd and Rita are strong _and_ smart. Even though they didn't always show it, they knew what they were doing every step of the way. We just always managed to stop them."

Tommy nodded. "We have to assume that Zedd and Rita know that at least a few Rangers are coming for Kimberly. There's no way in hell that we can just storm in there and expect to get her, and ourselves, out of there in one piece."

"Well then what are we going to do?" Leo queried.

For the next ten minutes, Tommy and Andros alternated back and forth, explaining their plan to the other Rangers. The plan, intricate in its' own right, was also quiet simple as well.

Since the Megaship had a cloaking device, they could get close enough to teleport onto the other ship without worrying about being spotted before they arrived. The plan was to go in as quietly as possible, obviously, systematically picking off any adversaries that might be there to greet them.

The bulk of the group was going to be dealing with any monsters or foot soldiers that Tommy and Andros were expecting Zedd and Rita to have waiting for them onboard the ship. While they did that, Tommy, Jason, and Rocky were going to go to the lower level of the ship in search of Kimberly and hopefully, at least to Tommy, Zedd and Rita.

_Andros,_ DECA's voice came over the loudspeaker_ five minutes until the Megaship is within teleportation range._

"Alright guys, this is it. We're almost there," Tommy said with both anxiousness and fear in his voice. "Once we're on the ship, don't hesitate to Morph if you feel the need to, okay? I don't want anyone to take any unnecessary chances with this one."

Looking around the room, Tommy watched as everyone nodded their heads in both agreement and understanding. With that, he took a deep breath and prepared to give his final speech/pep talk to the group.

"We've all been put in this position before. Every single one of us has fought and struggled to save someone that we care about. Today is no different. For every single person who has ever touched the Power, it is because of those who came before us," Tommy started, eyeing his team with pride. They looked both mentally and physically prepared for their looming confrontation. "Kimberly fought hard for two-and-a-half years. Not many Rangers can say that. We owe it to the legacy of the first Power Team to make sure she gets out of there alive."

At this point, quite a few of the Rangers were struggling to keep dry eyes. No one could even look at Tommy in fear of betraying their doubts about the mission. It was hard not to be doubtful at the prospect of invading a space craft with enemies most of them knew nothing or very little about. Tommy sensed their doubt and, though he would have liked to have left his monologue at that, continued to speak.

"Listen guys, regardless of what happens out there, I want you to know something alright? This life we all live, being Rangers, it's not just about fighting monsters and saving the world. It's easy to be confident when you have touched the Power," Tommy continued, looking to each Ranger individually. "It's very, very difficult to keep that confidence when you have to take whatever strange bounces that life throws your way. Don't be careless out there, but don't be too careful either."

"You," he spoke softly, pointing to Jason and addressing him by his whole name then doing the same to Rocky, T.J., Andros and the others until he had made his way through all of them. "All of you. You _cannot_ be afraid to lose! That's how you gain the confidence to _fight back_ when things like this happen. That's how you attack life," he paused, a single tear sliding down his cheek as he dropped his voice to a barely audible whisper. "Even when you think that you don't have any control."

Silently, Jason stood up and extended his fist. All at once, those who weren't already standing did so, following Jason's lead. Tommy and Andros offered their hands to the pile as well as Jason whispered a few departing words that injected enough confidence in the group to last them a lifetime.

"Let's show them what we're made of guys. Let's make them regret the day that they decided to come back and mess with the Power Rangers. Let's give 'em Red Hell."

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Sixteen glowing and crackling columns of red light touched down all at once in a dark hallway somewhere on the upper level of Zedd and Rita's space ship. After checking to make sure that everyone had arrived safely, Andros raised his left wrist to his lips and spoke.

"Mack, we're in," he murmured softly.

"Okay. I've got a lock on all your energy readings but…" Mack started then stopped for a moment as he stared at the computer screen on the Megaship. "Tommy's reading is off the charts. Is he okay?"

Andros looked to Tommy who looked surprised but nodded his head nonetheless. "He says he is. Keep an eye on that though, okay?"

"You got it, Andros. Mack out."

"Good kid," Andros muttered to no one in particular.

"Alright guys. Let's go," Tommy spoke in a near whisper. "And remember what I said; not cocky but not too careful. I expect eighteen bodies on that ship when it gets back to Earth. Anything less than that is unacceptable."

With that, the Rangers started their journey through the massive, five-leveled ship to rescue Earth's first Pink Ranger. For the longest time they navigated their way through the hallways in silent search of stairs or an elevator, anything to get them off the top floor but found nothing except empty rooms and more hallways.

"Guys. I'm getting something over here," Mack's voice came through via Andros' communicator. The group came to a stop as Andros raised his wrist towards his mouth once again.

"What is it, Mack?"

"I can't tell for sure but it looks like there's a stairwell through the door at the end of the hallway on your right. Unfortunately, I'm getting a reading saying that there's at least three-hundred of the same or similar energy signatures coming from the other side of the same door."

"Putties," Jason, Rocky and Tommy all muttered in unison.

"Okay, Mack. We'll keep an eye out. Thanks," Andros replied, ending the transmission with Mack and the Megaship.

Tommy raised a finger to his lips to keep everyone quiet as he began to lead them down the hallway towards the door that Mack had just identified. When they reached the door, Tommy held up his hand and everyone stopped where they stood.

"You guys ready?" he asked in a whisper. Fifteen heads all nodded at once. "Okay then. Red Hell it is."

Taking a few steps back, Tommy launched his leg forward into a high snap kick that knocked the door off its hinges, sending it flying towards a cluster of gray-colored figures, taking out several Putties in the process. For the first time ever, Tommy, Jason, and Rocky came face-to-face with both Zedd and Rita's version of the clay foot soldiers.

The sight at hand looked something like the many film depictions of the ancient Greek and Roman battles. With Tommy's battle cry as a signal to converge, sixteen blurs of red and almost three-hundred gray bodies charged at each other, meeting head on in the center of the large, empty room.

Those with special powers like Nick, Shane, Bridge and Conner used those abilities to their advantage while Carter, Wes and Eric all drew weapons; a blaster for Carter and staves for Wes and Eric.

While they did that, the Rangers without added powers or weapons relied on their skills as fighters and martial artists to combat the influx of both Rita's regular Putties and Zedd's enhanced Z-Putties.

The battle within the room waged for nearly twenty minutes with neither side being able to gain any sort of an advantage over the other. Unable to leave his fellow Rangers when they were so heavily outnumbered, Tommy felt the fire residing inside of him, as well as his frustration towards the situation, start to grow. He let out a fierce yell and violently kicked one Putty in the face, ducking the oncoming blow of another and spinning behind it, snapping its neck in the process.

It was a terribly violent maneuver, one that none of the Rangers had ever even given thought to executing before but, apparently, desperate times called for desperate measures. This fight was turning into a no-holds barred free-for-all with Tommy using every ounce of strength in his body to eliminate as many Putties as one man could.

Eventually, the Rangers managed to rid themselves of enough Putties to where Tommy, Jason and Rocky could finally get away to go after Kimberly. It was simply bad luck that Zedd and Rita had other plans for them.

The Putties disappeared in flashes of yellow light and, for a moment, the Rangers thought that they had been granted a reprieve. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The door to the stairwell opened up and Goldar entered the room, leading a group of Zedd and Rita's oldest and strongest monsters.

Shellshock, Knasty Knight, Samurai Fan Man, King Sphinx and a slew of others started towards the Rangers under the leadership of the Titan general. Tommy looked to Jason, Rocky and then down the line, nodding his head to each of the Rangers.

"I think it's that time, guys!" Tommy called out as they backed up towards the way they had come in. Jason nodded in agreement.

"It's Morphin' Time!" Jason yelled, pointing his Power Morpher towards the group of monsters. "Tyrannosaurus!" Tommy nodded approvingly as he morphed. "Mighty Morphin' Red Ranger!"

The others watched on as the original Red Ranger morphed into the familiar spandex, his helmet clicking shut over his head. Rocky stepped up next in a moment Tommy had secretly been anticipating since the second Red Ranger had started attending their meetings. He wanted to see what would happen when Rocky, who shared the same powers as Jason, morphed.

"It's Morphin' Time!" Rocky followed, mimicking Jason's arm movements. "Red Ranger Power!"

As Rocky morphed, Tommy and Jason smiled at the both the similarities and differences between the two uniforms. Where Jason's had three blank, white diamonds across the chest, Rocky's armor had only one diamond in the center of his uniform with an image of the ape emblazoned on it.

"Nice, Rocky. Now it's my turn. It's Morphin' Time!" Tommy yelled, clicking his Zeonizers together. "Zeo Ranger Five, Red!"

"It's Morphin' Time! Red Aquitar Ranger Power!" Aurico added. "Red Alien Ranger!"

"Shift Into Turbo!" T.J. continued, turning an invisible steering wheel then entering his key into the Turbo Morpher. "Red Lightning Turbo Power!"

"Let's Rocket!" Andros called out, entering the 3-3-5 sequence on his Astro Morpher. "Red Space Ranger."

"Go! Galactic!" Leo yelled, basking in the familiar rush of power as he pushed the button on his Transmorpher. "Red Galaxy Ranger!"

"Lightspeed! Rescue!" Carter came next, opening his Rescue Morpher in the process. "Red Lightspeed Ranger!"

"Time For, Time Force!" Wes summoned, bringing his arms across his chest before swinging them to the side of his head, pressing a single key on his Chronomorpher. "Red Time Force Ranger!"

Eric then raised his Quantum Morpher to his lips. "Quantum Power!"

"Wild Access, hiya!" Cole followed, using his Growl Phone to summon his power. "Blazing Lion! Red Wild Force Ranger!"

"Ninja Storm, Ranger Form!" Shane bellowed, spinning the Power Disc on his Wind Morpher. "Power of Air! Red Wind Ranger!"

"Thunder Storm, Ranger Form!" Hunter continued, pushing the button on his Thunder Morpher to spin his own Power Disc. "Power of Thunder! Crimson Thunder Ranger!"

"Dino Thunder, Power Up! Ha!" Conner opened the Tyrannosaurus Dino Plate on his Dino Morpher. "Tyranno Power! Red Dino Thunder Ranger!"

"S.P. D., Emergency!" Bridge shouted, thrusting out and flipping open his Delta Morpher at the same time as he morphed. "S.P.D. Red Ranger!"

"Magical Source, Mystic Force!" Nick finished after entering the proper sequence on his Mystic Morpher and pointing it towards the sky. "Fearsome as fire! Red Mystic Ranger!"

The group of old monsters took a few precautionary steps backwards as the room began to glow brightly in various shades of red. Individual weapons drawn, Tommy nodded to his teammates and they went full speed towards the monsters.

Zeo and Power Swords in hand, Tommy, Rocky, and Jason went to work on fighting a trio of monsters, specifically those who had given them particular trouble in the past. Rocky went after Pachinko Head while Tommy and Jason took on Goldar and King Sphinx respectively.

Wes and Eric had taken to teaming up against Shellshock, narrowly avoiding a flurry of blasts coming from the columned stoplight on top of the oversized snapping turtle's head. With Wes using his Chrono Saber to deflect more of Shellshock's energy projectiles, after rolling out of a somersault Eric withdrew his Quantum Defender from its holster, firing a single shot to Shellshock's chest that sent the monster reeling.

"Nice shot, Eric," Wes called out.

"I know it was," Eric fired back, smiling under his helmet. Wes just rolled his eyes as they continued to go after Shellshock.

Across the room, Carter had summoned his V-Lancer, using the spear-like staff to parry attack after attack from the Knasty Knight's sword. Carter dropped to a knee, using his weapon to sweep at the Knasty Knight's legs, knocking him to the ground.

While this was happening, T.J. with his Turbo Lightning Sword and Andros brandishing his Spiral Saber were fighting monsters of their own. T.J. was taking on Samurai Fan Man and Andros was busy combating Grumble Bee.

With his Magna Talon, Leo took swing after powerful swing at Eye Guy dismembering a chunk of eyeballs from the monster's clustered exterior. Having flipped backwards to avoid a blast, Leo dove towards Eye Guy and slashed again, sparks flying as the creature went stumbling into a wall.

Cole, holding onto his Red Lion Fang, was in pursuit of the Pumpkin Rapper who was skipping around the room, avoiding Cole's attacks while taunting the Red Wild Force Ranger with its incessant need to rhyme whenever it spoke. Growing frustrated, Cole launched into a flurry of attacks that were simply too powerful for the Pumpkin Rapper to avoid.

"I hate rap," Cole grumbled as the monster fell to the floor.

Flapping its wings, Polluticorn sent the Red Dino and Red Wind Rangers flying into a wall. After pushing themselves onto their feet, spinning his Tyranno Staff high above his head, Conner created a heavy gust that Shane added to with his ability to control the air, giving Polluticorn a taste of its own medicine.

Energy beams erupted from the barrels of Bridge's Delta Blasters, sparks erupting from Stag Beetle's chest as the monster collapsed in a heap. Thinking Stag Beetle was done, Bridge turned to aid Nick and Hunter against Cannontop only to be caught by the beetle's pincers.

Bridge writhed in pain as electrical shocks charged their way through the pincers and into his body. It took an intense and powerful swing from Conner's Tyranno Staff to get Stag Beetle to release Bridge from his captivity.

"Thanks, Conner," Bridge muttered, slow to stand and tightly gripping at his side from where the Stag Beetle's charges had electrocuted him. If not for the protection offered by the Power, Bridge would have been, ironically, toast.

"Don't mention it, man," Conner replied, laying a hand on Bridge's shoulder. "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. I'll make it."

Conner nodded his head and then left Bridge with the stumbling and shaking Stag Beetle to return his attention to helping Shane with Polluticorn.

Cannontop fired a stunning blast that connected with Nick's chest, sending the Red Mystic Ranger flying across the room. Pulling his Thunder Staff from its sheath behind his back, Hunter swung it in uppercut fashion, connecting with Cannontop's chin.

As Nick got back onto his feet, the monsters and Goldar began to regroup at the far end of the room. Tommy called for the Rangers to do the same and they did, converging opposite Goldar and his team but, at the same time, Tommy also noticed an opening to the stairwell, an opening to get Kimberly.

More than anything, he wanted to take that opening, to throw caution to the wind and go straight for the woman he loved more than anything in the world but he had a duty to his fellow Rangers as well. He had reached the proverbial crossroads; stay and fight like he knew he should or leave and try to save his fiancée. It was a choice that he wanted no part in having to make. Thankfully for him, he didn't have to do anything.

"Tommy, take Jason and Rocky and get out of here," Andros whispered. "We can handle Goldar and the goons."

"A-are you sure?" Tommy asked hesitantly.

"Positive," Andros replied. Tommy nodded his head which Andros reciprocated and they gripped hands tightly. "Go now while you still have an opening." Tommy started to move towards Rocky and Jason but Andros stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to look at his Kerovian friend. "Remember, anything less than eighteen is unacceptable."

Underneath his helmet, Tommy smiled at Andros and nodded one last time before rounding up Jason and Rocky. On Andros' command, the Rangers charged Goldar and the monsters once more while Tommy, Jason and Rocky made a mad dash for the door.

Goldar saw this and began to run towards them in an attempt to cut the trio off only to be met with Andros' Spiral Saber and Leo's Magna Talon slashing across his chest. Tommy breathed a deep sigh of relief as they hit the stairs, heading for the lower level and, hopefully, Kimberly.

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With all the years of experience that existed between the trio, they should have known that it wouldn't be as easy as just bursting into a room, grabbing Kimberly and teleporting out. The adrenaline Tommy was running on clouded his vision and he wasn't thinking when they went plowing through the double doors.

Now, two of Tommy's best friends were laid out on the ground under individual barred cells that had fallen from the ceiling the moment that they entered the room. The cells had no lock, no door and therefore no visible way for Tommy to release them from their imprisonment.

Jason and Rocky had both instinctively grabbed at the bars upon being captured and were met with electrical currents that flung them backwards into the other end of the cell, zapping them for a second time, de-morphing and knocking them both out in the process. They were, at least until Tommy could find a way to free them, stuck.

To make matters worse, Kimberly was nowhere in sight. And if that wasn't bad enough, there was a crucifix laying on the floor in the center of the room painted in white, green, red and black. Obviously, it wasn't intended for Kimberly.

"Just hang tight, guys," Tommy murmured, ripping his eyes from the crucifix to address his imprisoned and unconscious friends. "I'm gonna find a way to get you guys out of here. I promise."

"Is that so? And just what is it that the great Tommy Oliver plans to do to save his friends from their death?" a familiarly evil male voice echoed throughout the room.

Tommy spun around on his heels to see Lord Zedd and Rita walking out of the shadows towards him, Zedd dragging a bound and gagged Kimberly across the floor. Her arms were cut up from being thrown to the floor by Goldar earlier and when he saw that Kimberly was hurt, he immediately felt fear not just for her but for the new life that was now growing inside of her as well.

"Kimberly!" Tommy yelled, running towards her.

Rita let out an evil cackle and pointed her staff right at Tommy, blasting him in the chest with pulse after pulse of evil energy. He dropped to the floor as Kimberly tired to let out a scream that was muffled by the gag in her mouth.

"Idiotic human!" Zedd spat, leaving Kimberly with Rita to approach him. Zedd stood over the top of Tommy's collapsed body and aimed his own staff at Tommy's helmet-covered head. "What do you have to say for yourself now!? After years of you interfering with my plans, there will be no more interference. It's time to say goodbye, Tommy."

Kimberly winced as Zedd let out a blast of red energy from his staff, exhaling with relief when it did no damage. The beam had simply bound Tommy with an energy rope that flashed deep shades of crimson, Zedd's signature color. Zedd turned to look at his wife, saw the look of surprise on Kimberly's face and let loose a maniacal laugh.

"What's the matter, Kimmie? Did you really think I was going to kill him so soon?" Zedd roared, tiny flickers of lightning crackling at his silver-tipped fingers. "No, no. First I'm going to make him watch the death of his friends. Then I'm going to make him watch your death. Only then will I show mercy and end his suffering."

Reaching out towards Tommy's head, Zedd unclipped Tommy's helmet and yanked it off, tossing it across the floor. He grabbed what little hair Tommy had and jerked his head up, forcing him to look at a small glass ball that he was holding.

Tommy stared at the sight with horror on his face. The Rangers were still fighting on the top floor but now Goldar and the monsters had the upper hand. Even with their Battlizers activated, and Bridge and Nick in S.W.A.T. and Legend Modes, they were no match for the group of monsters that was consistently growing in numbers.

And the fire inside Tommy began to burn once again.

"Look at them with their pathetic Battlizers. They don't stand a chance," Zedd laughed. "Just think, Tommy. If you had a Battlizer of your own, you might be able to put up a decent fight. Instead, you're just going to die."

"Stupid son of a bitch," Tommy muttered, spitting at Zedd's feet. He jerked his head from Zedd's grip and looked him right in the eyes. "I don't need a Battlizer. _**I AM A BATTLIZER**_!"

His voice erupted throughout the room with such a powerful force that parts of the walls and ceiling actually started to crack at the mere sound of it. Still bound by Zedd's energy rope, he dove forward and connected with a headbutt to Zedd's midsection that sent the evil emperor staggering backwards.

Rolling onto his back, Tommy launched himself into a Kip-up, landing on his feet. He pushed his arms and shoulders outwards, the ropes that bound him immediately snapping without any significant physical exertion on his part.

"You're gonna die, Zedd. You're gonna die and I'm gonna enjoy every minute of it," Tommy laughed evilly, his eyes flashing green then white then red and finally black. Both Zedd and Rita fired blasts at him but he deflected them with his forearm as if they were nothing. "It's my time. I call upon the Power of all those combined!"

"Dragonzord!" Tommy bellowed, the room starting to glow with green tinting. "Tigerzord!" he yelled, the background color changing from green to white. "Red Zeo Ranger!" he continued, the room going red now. "Black Brachio!" he finished.

There was a loud explosion, and then the room went completely dark.

For what seemed like an eternity, the only sound in the room was Tommy's evil laugh, a laugh that Kimberly had hated for so long but had never been so happy to hear in all her life than at that very moment. When the lights came back on, Tommy was standing there fully morphed in a uniform that no one had ever seen before.

The explosion that had occurred upon Tommy's morph had completely obliterated the cells imprisoning Jason and Rocky. They were slow to regain consciousness but when they did, they could barely believe what they saw.

"Holy shit," Jason muttered.

"Oh my God," Rocky added, wiping at his eyes. "Is that Tommy?"

"Yeah," Jason breathed. "At least, I think it is."

The bulk of the suit was that of the ones first worn by the original Power Team. His helmet visor retained the traditional look from when he had controlled the Dragonzord but that was where the comparisons stopped. Red was now his uniform's color and the shield that covered the upper half of his body was the one he had worn as the White Ranger, only the Japanese kanji at the center had been replaced by the Dino Thunder team's logo.

With Saba in one hand and his Brachio Staff in the other, Tommy charged at Zedd and Rita as Rita tossed Kimberly to the side so that she could defend herself. In the process, Kimberly's head connected with the hard floor and she blacked out but not before seeing Rita swing at Tommy with her staff which Tommy easily deflected then spun back around to deliver a kick to Zedd's chest after the block.

He dropped to his knees and punched Rita right in the stomach, knocking her down and then attacked Zedd with a swing from Saba. Blood started to pour from the wound in Zedd's shoulder, steaming when it trickled to the ground.

"Jason! Rocky!" Tommy yelled, only briefly looking back at them. "Get Kimberly out of here, now!"

"No way, man!" Jason shouted back. "We're stay-"

"NO!" Tommy bellowed, his attention now back to Zedd and Rita who were on their feet again. He dropped them both with snap kicks and then looked towards Jason. "I said get her out of here! Get the others and get back to the Megaship! Now! I can handle this from here!"

Jason wanted to argue but Tommy was right. It was obvious that he could hold his own against both Zedd and Rita, especially with the added power that had seemingly come from out of nowhere.

With Tommy keeping Zedd and Rita busy, Jason ran to Kimberly and lifted her off the ground, hoisting her over his shoulder. Giving Tommy a fleeting glance, Jason and Rocky ran out of the room the same way that they had come in.

Tommy swung high with his Brachio Staff, connecting with a blow to the side of Rita's head that, in a move of pure gore the likes of which Tommy hadn't ever seen, completely severed her head from her neck. She went down with a thud, never to get back up again.

Zedd erupted with anger, firing blasts at Tommy which he continued to deflect without any real effort. He didn't know how he was doing the things he was doing. It was like his body had gone into autopilot under control of the Power.

"Look at you," Tommy whispered, kicking Zedd in the chest. Zedd went down and Tommy stood tall over him. He drove Saba right into Zedd's other shoulder, drawing more blood. "You bleed just like a human and now, you're going to die just like a human."

In all his years as a Power Ranger, never had Tommy, or any other Ranger for that matter, referred to the impending demise of a monster or villain as death. The evil that they fought had always been "eliminated" or "destroyed" but never killed.

This wasn't like other battles, though. Tommy wasn't a teenager anymore. He knew exactly what would happen if he gave Zedd a chance to recuperate and it wasn't a prospect that he wanted to deal with.

Tommy tossed his Brachio Staff aside, sending it skittering across the floor. Then, he raised Saba high above his head with both hands, and prepared to drive it through Zedd's heart, if he even had one.

"Never!" Zedd hissed, elevating his own staff and plunging it into Tommy's stomach, impaling him on the tip of the "Z."

Screaming in agony from the wound, the evil energy from Zedd's staff coursed through Tommy's body as it began to shake violently. Somehow, as blood started to seep through the wound in his stomach, Tommy managed to use the last of his energy to sink Saba right into Zedd's chest.

Saba stood straight up in Zedd's breast as the body of one of the Power Ranger's oldest adversaries started to convulse on the ground. Falling to the floor, Tommy gripped his midsection and slowly felt his whole world start to go black.

"Goodbye, Kimberly. I love you," he whispered, closing his eyes for the last time.

A blinding flash of white light erupted throughout the entire ship just as fifteen columns of red and one of pink flew through the darkness of space, heading towards the safety of the Megaship.

All across the universe, humans and aliens alike, everyone whose life Tommy had touched, and those who knew him only by his legacy and reputation, wept for the loss of the greatest Power Ranger that had ever lived.

As Zedd and Rita's ship began to implode, a new voice spoke.

"Welcome."

Soothing in its own right, the voice offered a comforting feeling to Tommy that he had not experienced before.

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"TOMMY!" Jason yelled, watching as the ship they had so narrowly escaped blew up.

Tears filled his eyes as he collapsed onto the floor. Curling himself into a tight ball, he began to openly weep in front of the other Rangers, disregarding whatever chauvinistic inhibitions he may have had at the time.

His best friend-No, his brother, was gone. Just like that, after years of fighting and surviving whatever hardships life had thrown his way, Tommy was dead.

Sixteen heads, all but Jason's, remained bowed in silent mourning for their fallen friend and leader. Kimberly was still unconscious, now resting on a bed in the medical wing. They were all dreading the moment that she woke up. No one knew if they would have the emotional and physical strength to deliver the news when she came out of her unconscious state.

"I shouldn't have left. I should have stayed and helped him," Jason sobbed, hugging himself tightly around his midsection. "It's all my fault. I could have helped him. He'd be here with us if I hadn't listened to him."

"No, Jason. He wouldn't. You'd be right there with him."

Shane spoke softly, his words not intended to be harsh. Jason simply mistook them as such and lashed out at the Red Wind Ranger with a fiery burst of uncontrollable emotions.

"Go to Hell, you bastard!" Jason growled. It took the combined strength of Wes, Andros, Eric, Carter and Leo to prevent him from ripping Shane limb from limb. "My brother just died out there and you have the audacity to speak to me like that!? Who the hell do you think you are!?"

"Jason, I didn't-" Shane started, only to be interrupted.

"Who died?"

Everything suddenly stopped and sixteen heads whipped around to see Kimberly standing at the entrance to the briefing room, rubbing the back of her head gingerly. She did a quick head count, saw that Tommy wasn't there and fell to her knees.

"Oh god. Kimberly," Jason whispered. Those restraining him let go as he rushed to his little sister's side. He too went to his knees and pulled Kimberly into a bone crushing hug, allowing her to cry into his shoulders. "Kimberly, I'm so sorry."

"No! I don't believe it!" she cried out, pulling back to beat her fists against Jason's chest. He just stayed in the same position, allowing Kimberly to take out all her emotions on him. After all, in his mind it was his fault that Tommy wasn't there with them. "Say it's not true, Jason! Say it's not true!"

"I'm sorry, Kim. Tommy didn't make it," Jason whispered as her fists dropped and she fell forward against him.

He held onto her closely, refusing to let her go. Her face was now buried against the chest she had just used for a punching bag. For what seemed like hours, the two most important people in Tommy's life stayed on the floor, seeking comfort in the embrace of one another.

Only when the sobs subsided did Jason let go of his hold on her, standing up and helping her onto her feet. Wiping the tears from her eyes and off of her face, she looked to Jason, her eyes pleading for answers that he didn't have.

"Tommy was a great man, Kimberly. The best I've ever met," Andros muttered, fighting back tears of his own. Even though he and Kimberly had never actually met before, he felt no hesitation in speaking to her about Tommy. "He died making sure we all got to live. He made the ultimate sacrifice for us. I know it doesn't make things any easier to deal with, but Tommy died a hero."

"He loved you more than anything in the world, Kimberly," Eric added, laying a soft hand on her shoulder. "He brought us all together from different corners of Earth and space because he loved you. I'm honored that I got to fight by his side."

"I barely knew the man. But I know there's no one I would have rather fought side-by-side with than him," Nick spoke softly, replacing Eric's hand with his own. "Words will never do justice for the respect I have for him."

"Dr. O did more for me than words can say. Whenever I felt down, like my wings had been clipped, he was there to pull me up and help me fly again," Conner murmured, giving Kimberly a warm hug. "I loved him like a father but the love I felt for him is nothing compared to what he felt for you."

Continuing the pattern, each Ranger offered up some kind words to say about Tommy. She cried the whole time, nodding whenever one of them spoke to her but not really hearing what they were saying.

The rest of the flight back to Earth took less than an hour to complete but it felt like it had been days when the Megaship finally touched down in Tommy's backyard. Kimberly fled into the inner sanctum of Tommy's house as soon as the boarding ramp hit the ground.

Slow to exit, the sixteen Rangers stood solemnly in the backyard, staring at each other as if no one knew exactly what they were supposed to do now. It was Jason who took it upon himself to invite them inside, knowing that Tommy would have wanted them to celebrate his life, not mourn his death.

As they all made their way into Tommy's house, Jason heard the piercing cry of a falcon and looked to the sky to see one soaring gracefully overhead. He smiled up at his best friend and brother, gently closing the door behind him.

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Tommy lay facedown on a floor that was surprisingly comfortable in a place that he had never seen before. His eyes made no movements to open but he could instinctively sense that he was not alone. There was someone, or something there, he just didn't know what it was. Nor did he have any real desire to find out.

It could have been a long time, or not long at all when his eyes finally opened. The last thing he could remember after being impaled on Lord Zedd's staff was using his final breath to tell Kimberly that he loved her.

He was so sure that he was dead. He had felt Zedd's staff go through him, had felt all the life drain out of his body. Yet, here he was, laying on the floor, no longer wearing the uniform of all his combined powers.

Where that had come from, he still did not know. It had just happened, unbelievable as that may be. One as experienced as he did not ask questions when it came to the way the Power injected itself into one's life.

Tommy was not a religious man but faith was something he had a lot of: faith in himself, faith in his friends, faith in the Power. He trusted the Power to guide him when he needed it to do so, to help him when he needed aid, to grant him strength when he felt weak and to give him guidance when he was lost.

The Power wasn't something that could be explained. You either embraced it or you didn't. Tommy had tried to disregard the Power quite a few times as a teenager but his life never felt more complete than when he was in touch with it.

"The Power does many amazing things, my friend," the same voice from earlier spoke.

Tommy struggled with the invisible weight on his neck to raise his eyes and meet those of whoever it was that had just spoken to him. When he saw a tall figure with floor-length blonde air and calm blue eyes walking towards him, body covered in a flowing white cloak, he had to rub his eyes to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.

"Z-Zordon?" Tommy stammered. "Is that you?"

"Indeed it is," Zordon replied, offering his hand to help Tommy off the ground.

"Where are we?" Tommy asked.

"We are in the place where all those who have touched the Power go in passing," Zordon answered. Everything around them was white. There were no walls or ceilings, just pure whiteness. "Welcome to the Morphing Grid, Tommy."

"The Morphing Grid? In passing? Does that mean that-does that mean that I'm…you know, _dead_? Am I dead, Zordon?"

"Do you feel dead?"

"I-I don't think so but I don't really know what being dead is supposed to feel like. I feel alive though. More alive than I've ever felt before. It's like this amazing feeling like no evil can ever touch me again."

"In the Morphing Grid, Tommy, no evil exists, only goodness. This place is filled with all the souls and memories of those who came before us; those who, like you, myself, and the other Rangers, are pure of heart."

"So this is like Heaven then?"

"Essentially, yes. But not really," Zordon chuckled as he and Tommy walked along with no real destination awaiting them. "Traditionally speaking, anyone who believes in God can get into Heaven but one cannot gain entrance into the Morphing Grid without being completely pure of heart."

"So I'm dead then?"

"Do you want to be dead?"

"I want you to be Zordon and not Dimitria. That's what I really want."

Zordon covered his mouth with his hand and pushed back a small laugh. "In that case, Tommy, you are not dead. But in that essence you are not necessarily alive either. In the Morphing Grid, there is no life or death. Only existence."

A short while later their walk came to a stop in front of six statues made of solid gold. Each of the statues depicted one of the six original Power Rangers in morphed form. Tommy had to chuckle at how the Pink Ranger stood to the left of the Green Ranger and the Red Ranger stood to his right.

It seemed fitting at that moment that he had his best friend and the woman he would always love by his side. Even though he couldn't physically reach out to them, touch them or speak to them, he knew that they would always be there for him and he for them.

"May I ask you a personal question, Tommy?" Zordon queried, breaking their momentary silence.

"Yeah, sure," Tommy answered, nodding to his mentor.

"What is it that you desire most? What is the one thing that you want above all else? If a magical genie were to appear at this very moment and grant you only one wish, what is it that you would wish for?"

"Kimber-" Tommy started, then hesitated. Zordon smiled at him knowingly as Tommy gave deeper thought to the question. "I would say Kimberly but then I'd only have her. I wouldn't have the child I helped create with her. I wouldn't have Jason or any of the others. I wouldn't have my family. If all I had was Kimberly, I wouldn't have my life."

"You are so very wise. You never cease to amaze me and make me proud, my friend," Zordon murmured, beaming at Tommy. "What if I told you that you could have your life back but at a cost? Would you take me up on that offer, Tommy?"

"I-I don't really know. I guess it would depend on what the cost was. I'd rather stay here than risk hurting someone else or disrupting someone's life. Why do you ask?"

"I see that you have not forgotten the virtues I tried to instill in you all when you were teenagers. You still think for the greater good instead of only yourself. You are wise beyond your years, my young friend," Zordon answered. "I ask this of you, Tommy, because I can give you your life back."

"What? How?" Tommy sputtered in disbelief. Had he heard Zordon right? Did his mentor really just say that he could have his life back? "What are you talking about, Zordon?"

"As I said, I can give you your life back…at a cost."

"What cost?"

"The life of your unborn child."

Tommy's eyes went wide. Now he _really_ wasn't sure if he had heard Zordon correctly. Never in his wildest dreams could Tommy imagine Zordon giving him such an ultimatum as to choose his own life or that of his child.

"No! No way!" Tommy replied sternly and without hesitation, shaking his head back and forth vehemently. "I've destroyed a lot of bad guys in my life but I could never take the life of someone as innocent as an unborn baby. And to be honest, I can't believe you would even try to make me make that choice."

Zordon looked at Tommy with nothing in his eyes but the utmost pride and respect for the man which only helped to further fuel the confusion Tommy was experiencing.

"Tommy, I couldn't have made you make any choice that you did not want to make. Once again, you were faced with a decision; your own life or someone else's. As I hoped you would, as you have done so many times in the past, you have placed the life of someone you do not even know above your own. One day Tommy, when you and the other Rangers have completed the lives that you were destined to live, we will see each other again. Until then, I want you to enjoy your life with Kimberly and your baby. Goodbye, my friend."

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Looking up at the house on 1992 Valencia Road in Reefside, California, a man stood on the gravel driveway with a smile on his face and looked down on his wristwatch. According to the device, it was 11:07 p.m. on December 31, 2007, fifty-three minutes before it officially became the new year.

The silver Dodge Charger parked next to a black Jeep in the driveway let him know that somebody was home. With a smile on his face, he walked up to the front door and tested the handle. He was pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked so he let himself in.

Inside the house, Kimberly was asleep in Tommy's bed, curled under the covers and clinging desperately to the old stuffed dragon she had found in Tommy's closet. The dragon was a gift from her to him on his sixteenth birthday, right before he lost his Green Ranger Powers permanently. The fact that he still had it after all these years only made his death that much harder to cope with.

It had been two whole days since Tommy had died on Lord Zedd and Rita's ship but it still hadn't fully sunk in for her yet. She had gone to wearing Tommy's clothes just so she could feel him even if only by the lingering scent that clung to the items.

The old and oversized Angel Grove Lions t-shirt hung well past her knees. She had to roll up the hem on his pajama bottoms a dozen times just so she didn't step on them when she walked. His socks were far too big for her tiny feet but she didn't care. They were Tommy's things and that was all that mattered to her.

With him no longer there, aside from years of wonderful memories that would never leave her, his personal items were all that she had to remember him by. Things had been so hectic since getting back to Earth that she hadn't even thought of what would happen to his house when word got out that he had passed away. The basement held things that could destroy the lives of countless people who had served as Power Rangers.

It was rather ironic that the basement was the first place that the intruder had gone to. He spent nearly half-an-hour on the computers inputting new pieces of data pertinent to Power Ranger history.

When he had finished with that he went back upstairs into the kitchen, made himself a roast beef sandwich with all the trimmings and poured a tall glass of iced tea from the pitcher in the refrigerator as if the house he was in was his own.

He quickly tore through the sandwich and downed the glass of tea in a fashion that would have made even Rocky blush. Ignoring the crumbs he had left all over the linoleum floor and kitchen counter, he finished what was left of his iced tea and let out a loud belch before heading for the stairs.

Instinctively, he went to the master bedroom and quietly pushed the door open. Seeing the hump of petite brunette lying in the king sized bed brought a huge smile to his face. She looked so peaceful in her slumber that he almost regretted having to wake her up.

Giving his watch one last look, he realized that he only had five minutes before the year 2007 came to a close and the calendar turned to 2008. His steps to the side of the bed were quiet so as not to wake her before he intended to.

Looming over her, he lowered himself to one knee and placed a tender kiss on Kimberly's forehead. She stirred a bit but didn't wake up so he did it again to the same result. He thought about just pushing her shoulder to wake her but that wasn't exactly the romantic greeting that he was going for.

He put his thumb under her chin and kissed her again with a little more passion than before, this time on the lips. Her eyes started to flutter and, giving her one more kiss, took that as his cue to officially announce his presence.

"Happy New Year, Beautiful," he whispered into her ear after pulling back a few loose strands of hair.

"Mmm. Happy New Year, Tommy," she murmured, her eyes not fully open just yet. After saying his name though, they went wide with surprise. "TOMMY!" she screamed, bolting upright in the bed. She stared at him as if she had just seen a ghost. "I must be dreaming. Is it really you?"

"Haha, in the flesh princess," Tommy replied as Kim's eyes filled with tears and she threw her arms around his neck, holding onto him for dear life. "You have no idea how much I missed you, Beautiful."

"Not nearly as much as I missed you. Oh God, Tommy," Kim cried into his shoulder. "I was so scared that I had lost you. I thought you were gone for good."

"Yeah, right. And leave you all alone to raise our baby?" Tommy asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He had a smile on his face and a visible twinkle in his eyes. "I know I'm forgetful but I'd like to think that you know me a little bit better than that."

"Oh, you," Kimberly blushed. She pulled back out of the embrace just enough to cup his cheeks and kiss him. "But how are you here? Jason said you were still on the ship when it exploded. No one could have survived that."

"Let's just say I went on a little trip to a strange place with an old friend," Tommy answered. He wasn't planning to elaborate, at least not at that moment but Kim's face looked too confused for him not to. "When Zedd stabbed me with his staff, I thought I had died too. My world went black and the last thing I remember was saying that I loved you," he explained as Kimberly bit back more tears. Even though Tommy hadn't really died, knowing that she was the last thing on his mind before he kinda-sorta-died made her feel rather emotional. "Anyway, I woke up in this weird place. It was all white and Zordon was there."

"Zordon?" Kimberly interrupted. Tommy merely smiled at her and nodded his head.

"We went for a little walk and he told me that we were in the Morphing Grid and that it was the place where all people who had been touched by the Power went to when they passed on."

"Like Heaven?"

"That's what I thought at first, too. I don't really remember all the specifics of what Zordon told me but it's kinda the same but still different in its own way. After that, he told me he could give me my life back but that it had to come at a cost."

"A cost?" Kimberly asked hesitantly. "What cost."

Tommy winced. He _really_ didn't want to go that far into his explanation but he knew that, at the very least, he owed it to Kimberly to tell her the truth. The whole truth.

"He said…he said I'd have to give up our baby," Tommy muttered, wincing at the scared and surprised look on Kimberly's face. But before she had a chance to ask a bunch of questions and potentially get angry with him, he continued to tell the story. "I told him no. I told him that there was no way I could take an innocent life just to live my own. He said that because of that, because of my willingness to let someone live their life at the cost of mine, that he would see us all again when we had finished the lives that we were all destined to live. Apparently, it wasn't my destiny to die yet."

"So, our baby…it's not…I mean, I'm still…" Kimberly whispered, her hands resting on her stomach. "I'm still pregnant?"

"As far as I know, Beautiful," Tommy replied, gently stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. "But you did take a couple nasty falls on that ship. You should probably make an appointment with your obstetrician just to be on the safe side, though."

Kimberly nodded. "I will. First thing tomorrow morning I'll call Dr. Matthews and make an appointment. But for now," Kimberly started. She grabbed him by the shirt collar and yanked him towards her, their lips meeting in a crushing kiss. "I want to celebrate the New Year and all the miracles in my life with the man that I love."

She winked at Tommy and kissed him over and over again until both of them were sitting there on the bed completely breathless. Wearing a huge smile on his face, he started to kiss his way down her neck.

"Mmm. I think I'd like that very much."

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_Hot damn this thing took me forever to write. I really wanted to get this up before it officially became 2008 but proofreading 46 pages takes a whole hell of a lot of time. Hopefully it wasn't too long. I thought about dividing this up into two chapters because I didn't want anyone to lose interest midway through, but whatever. LOL. Anyways, I think 46 pages is worthy of a review or two. What do you think? Haha. So click that little button to leave one, okay? Thanks! Talk to you soon._

_WK_


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